We contemplate the loss of self in a world encroached upon by digital realities; where our virtual analogues define our being; where we are suppressed by the weight of imaginary expectation; where we squander time.

Three recent works by local composers provide perspectives on these conceits: Christoven Tan’s sweatbox, for ensemble and electronics, exploits the medium of video in delving into modes of performative hyperreality. Joan Tan’s intimate To drift, to float, but never land ruminates on time and societal expectation, finding solace in “going nowhere”. In stark contrast to this is a new, high-octane offering by Abdul Hakiim, a producer of absurdist, schizophrenic digital music. Complementing these are the organic sonic forms of Aaron Cassidy’s supervirtuoso work for saxophone and electronics, and Peter Ablinger’s brutal, catastrophic explorations into redundancy of material or procedure. 

On the occasion of György Ligeti’s centenary, we stage a performance of his rarely performed Fluxus work, Poème Symphonique: an orgy of metronomes that hurtle towards a point of inevitable stillness; an exercise in collapse; an apt metaphor for contemporary existence.