Day One: Thursday 6 November
Bathway Theatre
7 – 8pm: Concert 1 – Natasha Barrett (Featured Concert)
Natasha Barrett – Touch
“Touch” was originally titled “Tails of Touch” — as in the tail end, or the glimpse of something as it disappears. In English, the word tails is a homophone of tales. Here, the spoken sound is ambiguous and could suggest either, with tales meaning a story.
Both tail and tales are appropriate to the sound-worlds I am revealing in the composition. I like ambiguity. It can evoke reflection, trick you into following a new listening path, only for you to realise that you have been led elsewhere. The risk is that this intentional ambiguity may be lost in translation for non-native English speakers. So, for the premier — which took place at the MIXTUR Festival in Barcelona, who also commissioned the work — I shortened the title to simply “Touch”.
“Tails and Tales of Touch” is about touch as physical affection, touch as healing, and as sensory experience. There is a longing for human touch, and the absence of it as isolation and rejection. There is the awaited hug and the feeling it brings to the body. There is the touch of the unknown, the forbidden touch, and the contact or touch of nature.
Touch is composed of three sections that run almost continuously: – Sensory-seekers – Forbidden touch – Contact
Natasha Barrett – The Swifts of Pesaro
In November 2023, while preparing for the premiere of a large orchestra and live electronics composition I had some days off from the intensity of performance, people and concert halls. To unwind, I visited a few of the recordings I made during the warm nights of Pesaro (Italy) earlier in the summer. Experimenting with these recordings resulted in ambient and immersive soundscapes, which, unlike the high-energy composition materials I was currently working on, I didn’t really think much more of. It was also a mediation amidst the destruction wreaking havoc in the world in the end of 2023. Later on I played these slow-moving sounds to a friends who suggested that they could live on in a short composition. The result is ‘The Swifts of Pesaro.’ Dedicated to eco-acoustics researcher and sound artist David Monacchi.
Natasha Barrett – Constructions of Collapse and Desire
Media, science, images, talk of a world in collapse. Yet The buildings around me are still standing. The nature outside still grows. The local station still receives and delivers its carriages. For how long? Maybe for eternity. Maybe for four years. But if constructions of man and nature collapse, I hope they will regroup as beautiful objects of desire. At least in my dreams. Constructions of Collapse and Desire reimagines reality through 3D sound, immersive computer graphics, and real-time video processing performance. It transports audiences to a surreal world where our surrounding constructions are set in motion, torn apart, and rebuilt. The work explores sonic and visual architecture, featuring locations such as a rural train station, a snow-covered path leading into the night, and Oslo’s Barcode District. Supported by The Norwegian Government Grants for Artists.
Natasha Barrett (NO/UK) is a composer, new media artist and researcher. She creates acousmatic, electronic, and live-electroacoustic music, public-space sound installations and audiovisual works. She is widely recognised for her artistic exploration of 3D sound and ambisonics. Her work is commissioned and performed worldwide and has received awards in over 30 international competitions, including the most prestigious prize available for Nordic composers, the Nordic Council Music Prize.
In addition to her solo career, she regularly collaborates with performers, visual artists, architects, and scientists, often drawing on data emulating or created by real-world processes as a source for artistic exploration. Some of the highlights include 3D audiovisual artworks with the USA-based OpenEndedGroup, science-art sonification in collaboration with geoscientists, and live electronics collaborations with many soloists and ensembles.
She has held professorships and research positions in Norway and Denmark and now works freelance.