Rama Gottfried joins forces with the latenz ensemble in the project «phantom bands», conjuring new forms of nonhuman music-theater ecosystems, inhabited by creatures who emerge and perform in vaguely punk and fluidly refined technical subcultures. Part object theater, part live cinema, the ensemble is continually transforming, physically and sonically, embodying entities who move and speak with hybrid digital-acoustic voices. Utilizing a wide array of sounds, puppetry, video, and instrumental materials, the ca. one hour performance weaves together several of Gottfried’s animistic-ecology themed works, including the computer-vision-puppetry piece «Scenes from the Plastisphere», live-foley excerpts from «Onotopoiesis», and the premiere of «phantom bands» composed for ensemble latenz. The performance is conceived as an experimental method of nonhuman character relation, where the audience is drawn into an empathetic exchange with other forms of life, contexts, and environments--folding and unfolding into endlessly new possibilities of form and experience.

Composition commissioned by the UBS Kulturstiftung, with research support from the ICST

Image from video documentation by Simon Schwab.