Sonica Double Bill: Elephant You Shake Your Sheep // Ethereal Realms – All Fiction is Metaphor

The familiar sound of the bagpipes is pushed to its limits in this new collaborative work, which explores what the instrument can and cannot do, challenging its capabilities and limitations against the ostensibly endless potential of electronica. 

Inspired by Ursula K. Le Guin’s science-fiction classic The Left Hand of Darkness, musician Marie Delprat’s live show braids together her investigations into female performance in a post-human world, and the ways an artist’s personal experiences inform their practice. Mixing synthesised vocals and live instrumentation, Delprat moves through the space, eroding the barrier between artist and audience and turning a performance into an enquiry into creative endeavour. If all fiction is metaphor, what does that say about the narratives we tell ourselves – and about ourselves?

Credits/commissioning info we should include A Cryptic Commission 2024 in partnership GMEM, Theatre Hexagone, Stereolux and Un Singe en Hiver in Dijon.

Elephant you shake your sheep is supported by Diaphonique, Franco-British fund for contemporary music, in partnership with the SACEM, the Friends of the French Institute Trust, the British Council, the Institut français, the Institut français du Royaume-Uni, the Centre National de la Musique, Creative Scotland, the Salabert Fondation and Cove Park.

Ethereal Realms – All Fiction is Metaphor is supported by The Swiss Cultural Fund. 

ACCESS
Suitable for Subpacs 
Highly Visual / No Text

Audience notes
Performance includes strobe effects and flashing lights, repetitive, pulsing and high-pitched electronic sounds.