Music for Visuals, Visuals for Music

On April 1 I will open the Manifold festival with a concert featuring Laetitia Morais (live video), Cristina Ioan (flute), Emil Sein (saxophones), and Mahsin Basalama (qanun). The concert will feature the world premiere of “Three insomnias — Music for a dark room.”

The electronic part of “Three Insomnias” was composed in 2001 by Carlos Guedes for ballet “Quarto Escuro,” a choreography by Isabel Barros for the Balleteatro, and a commission from Porto 2001 European Capital of Culture. The traumatic event of 9/11 happened during the rehearsals for this show, and this was a major shifting point for the music. The stark reality reminding us all of our impotence in avoiding this type of violence, brought all of a sudden a new meaning, and almost new function to the music being composed — it should be able to transport people to dreamy states and beautiful spaces in order to liberate them from the horrible reality being lived at the time. The audiovisual reincarnation of this music in Three Insomnias with the videos by Laetitia Morais and the live music counterpart intends to make the audience embark on a collective dream that transports them audiovisually and emotionally to new and beautiful places.