In August 2023, I performed live electronic music as part of a magic lantern show at the Powerhouse Museum in Ultimo, Sydney. We were invited to present the show as a response to the museum’s drawing exhibition A Line, A Web, A World. The recording of my live soundtrack performance became the album Orbits.
The slide show was created by Martyn Jolly with a mix of vintage hand-coloured, painted, and mechanical slides from the 1880s–1900s and contemporary inkjet slides made from Anna Madeleine Raupach’s works Signal to Noise and Light Echoes/Standard Stars (2023).
We developed a show that takes the audience from pastoral scenes, to the ocean, the sky, and then into outer space before, heading deep into the sun for the end of the show. I performed with field recordings, digital synthesizers, and touch-pad instruments. With a techno and ambient inspired set reflecting the dramatic movement of the show.
Unusually, we performed the show three times in one night with different audiences in the small theatre. Hard work, but I really enjoy the chance to refine a set like this, improving and experimenting over multiple shows.
You can watch the whole show on Martyn’s Youtube channel.
Orbits
The recording of the performance is now available as the album Orbits on Bandcamp. The development and practice behind this set and the repeated performances led to a product that I felt worked particularly well.