We do not arrive in one piece. We can be both at once, oh sure,
but we’re coming off in crumbs. Fewer pixels arrive every time.
Someday there will be nothing left to dust off the tablecloth.
You’ll squint at a screen & wonder.
F R E A K FLOODS is a text-sound collaboration between writer/vocalist Emily DeDakis (USA) & harper/sonic artist Úna Monaghan (Ireland / Newnham College, Cambridge), combining live improvised performance with recorded soundscape. Spoken word mingles with sung moments, electronic sound collage & improvised harp accompaniment to bring lost people & geopolitical shifts to lyrical life. It’s a skewhiff symphony in ten movements — a hymn for a flooded city, a lullaby for a missing brother & an immigrant’s post-Brexit prayer. On the surface it’s about the United Kingdom of Great Britain & Northern Ireland & the United States of America; flickering below is a spectrum of possible places in between & the impossibility of keeping still.
DeDakis & Monaghan see F R E A K FLOODS as a piece in flux: experimenting with sound’s potential to fracture location & time, with the mix of American idiom & traditional Irish music, & with the overlap of fixed & improvisational aspects.
The performance lasts c.50mins and will be followed by a Q&A session with the artists.
Emily Dedakis: http://www.haveyouthoughtabout.co.uk
Úna Monaghan: http://www.unamonaghan.com
This performance is taking place as part of the University of Cambridge Festival of Ideas. Tickets are free, but must be booked in advance through the Festival of Ideas website.