Sunday, 5 December 2010; 8PM
The Substation Theatre
Admission: $25, available via email at info@shaunsankaran.com
Supported by The Substation
80 years have flown by since invention of the theremin. Still, it remains one of the most elusive instruments, cloaked, as it were, in a cloud of mystery. In the early 1920s, a young Russian musician and physicist named Leon Theremin used the technology of radio electronics to develop the first space-controlled musical instrument. This instrument he christened the theremin. As one of the very earliest electronic instruments, it is one of the most novel and original in concept. It is the only instrument which responds directly, continuously and immediately to every motion of the performer's hands.
On 5 December Shaun Sankaran will open the doors to a music of delicate sensitivity channelled through this enigmatic electronic instrument. Musician and performer for the past decade, Shaun obtained his B.A. In Recording Arts from the University of Middlesex. He has performed continually and obsessively as far as Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland and United Kingdom. While his approach to music is usually unorthodox, the aim is always the achievement of some level of synthesis or symbiosis - between audience and performer, idea and artefact, mind and soul. As a musician and performer, he is deeply interested in the texture of melody, the poetics of performance and the interconnectivity of all experiences.
Through the theremin, Shaun Sankaran summons a power to create a music that is so hypnotic and ominous, it would appear that there were unseen forces bending the shape of sound. From fluid motions of the hands come a creeping web of sounds that grow larger and larger to occupy the tiny places of quiet. Drifting, ethereal, lucid, we float above a sweet and sad lullaby of the soul. Time melts and slowly loses definition; instead, the growling low voice of the theremin becomes the anchor of meaning. In this respect, duration is completely insignificant. What becomes crucial is a capacity to create an ephemeral experience that moves both listener and performer. A tender melancholy pervades the music; a dense and desolate landscape emerges. These songs are invocations of an invisible but incredible world to which the listener treads alone.
For information and enquiries, please visit http://www.shaunsankaran.com or email info@shaunsankaran.com
The Substation Theatre
Admission: $25, available via email at info@shaunsankaran.com
Supported by The Substation
80 years have flown by since invention of the theremin. Still, it remains one of the most elusive instruments, cloaked, as it were, in a cloud of mystery. In the early 1920s, a young Russian musician and physicist named Leon Theremin used the technology of radio electronics to develop the first space-controlled musical instrument. This instrument he christened the theremin. As one of the very earliest electronic instruments, it is one of the most novel and original in concept. It is the only instrument which responds directly, continuously and immediately to every motion of the performer's hands.
On 5 December Shaun Sankaran will open the doors to a music of delicate sensitivity channelled through this enigmatic electronic instrument. Musician and performer for the past decade, Shaun obtained his B.A. In Recording Arts from the University of Middlesex. He has performed continually and obsessively as far as Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland and United Kingdom. While his approach to music is usually unorthodox, the aim is always the achievement of some level of synthesis or symbiosis - between audience and performer, idea and artefact, mind and soul. As a musician and performer, he is deeply interested in the texture of melody, the poetics of performance and the interconnectivity of all experiences.
Through the theremin, Shaun Sankaran summons a power to create a music that is so hypnotic and ominous, it would appear that there were unseen forces bending the shape of sound. From fluid motions of the hands come a creeping web of sounds that grow larger and larger to occupy the tiny places of quiet. Drifting, ethereal, lucid, we float above a sweet and sad lullaby of the soul. Time melts and slowly loses definition; instead, the growling low voice of the theremin becomes the anchor of meaning. In this respect, duration is completely insignificant. What becomes crucial is a capacity to create an ephemeral experience that moves both listener and performer. A tender melancholy pervades the music; a dense and desolate landscape emerges. These songs are invocations of an invisible but incredible world to which the listener treads alone.
For information and enquiries, please visit http://www.shaunsankaran.com or email info@shaunsankaran.com
