Overview

East African Nocturne is the first live collaboration between American musician, sound artist and poet, Z’EV and sound recordist and founding member of electronic music pioneers Cabaret Voltaire, Chris Watson. The premiere performance of this 45 minute live sound mix will be an exceptional, captivating sensory experience, mixing live percussion and sounds recorded from nature.

East African Nocturne is the result of exchanging sound files and internet discussions between Watson and Z’EV over a period of a year. The composition features sounds of the Serengeti mixed with Z'EV's percussive atmospheres produced in the crypt at Christ Church Spitalfields. Z’EV’s instruments were recorded moving through the crypt at varying speeds and directions to create an astonishing range of pitches and timbres.

For this special event, the work is recreated through Watson’s live mixing of sounds of birds, elephants, frogs, hyenas, insects, lions and vultures and their environment, recorded by Watson during trips to the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania and Z'EV's live percussion performance.

The rhythms of the work are generated as Z’EV and the instruments move in and through the gallery, producing orchestrations of highly rhythmic acoustic phenomena. Watson’s mix also moves through the gallery, processed by Paul Gillieron’s Ambisonic surround sound system, 3D AudioScape, presenting a special electro-acoustic experience.

Booking essential on 020 7703 6120.