Sounding Futures

The transcendent power of music is universal. From lyrics echoing and enlarging our lived experience to instrumental soundscapes altering our state of perception, this Friday Late celebrates the capacity of songs to sound new worlds. 

Join us to explore how experimental forms of storytelling integrate sound and vibration as a key aspect of narrative expression, inviting you to switch off from the background noise and dance to the beat of your inner drum. 

A
A Sonic Exploration: Widescreen to Clubland
The Grand Entrance, Cromwell Road 

Hannah Holland has long been a mainstay of London’s underground queer clubland, holding down residencies at legendary parties such as Trailer Trash, Batty Bass and now Adonis. Come and explore a new sonic world, from widescreen film scores to the club. Hannah is joined by long time collaborators Ziah Ziah and MAMA on vocals.

@djhannahholland
@mamalondontown
@keziah_ziah

B
Dialogues in Costume Design
Europe 1600–1815, Room 4

Enter the Globe to experience a multi-sensory installation of sound, film, and costume design, through an in-depth examination of the costume design process. The installation acts as a reflection of the resilience of artists and our longing to reconnect during the pandemic. In collaboration with the London College of Fashion and the Society of British Theatre Designers for hello stranger: National Exhibition of Performance Design 2019 – 2023.

This installation is in place for the duration of the Performance Festival.

C
Regenesis by Rieko Whitfield
The Raphael Cartoons, Room 48a  

Artist, writer, and musician Rieko Whitfield hosts writing workshops incorporating guided meditation and sound healing. Rieko will close the evening with a live performance of her debut experimental pop EP Regenesis, exploring themes of life, death, rebirth, and the power of community in embodying alternative futures. The workshops will focus on rewriting personal narratives through sound healing meditations on memory and non-linear time.

@riekowhitfield

D
MARS by James Tuitt
Fashion, Room 40
Please note this installation contains flashing lights.

London artist James Tuitt presents MARS, an exploration of rave-induced transcendence. This installation is a tangible manifestation of the safe spaces we look for when the hypnotic power of sound overtakes our minds. DJ and composer Hannah Holland orchestrates the accompanying soundscape, inviting you to close your eyes, throw your head back and reach upwards beyond the fog and lasers.

@stupendous_tremendous
@djhannahholland

E
Ramadan Pavilion
Exhibition Road Courtyard 

Join composer, conductor, educator and Ney soloist Louai Alhenawi for an empowering drumming session in the Ramadan Pavilion. Using the darbuka, a hand drum popular in South West Asia and North African music, become familiar to the sounds of ‘dum’ and ‘tak’ in this communal sharing experience through the rhythms of Baladi, Saiedi, Ayoub, laff and Haja.
 
Supported and curated by Ramadan Tent Project.

@louai.alhenawi
@ramadantentproject

F
Ramadan Pavilion: Music Beyond Borders
The Blavatnik Hall 

This live performance by Turkish bağlama (saz) player and composer, Ahmet Ozan Baysal, is a celebration of the Aşıklık tradition of Türkiye, an inseparable part of Anatolian folk music culture. Ozan will take you in a timeless musical journey activating the Ramadan Pavilion by blending ancient traditional melodies from various regions of Anatolia.

Supported and curated by Yunus Emre Institute London and Ramadan Tent Project.

@ozan_baysal
@ramadantentproject
@yeelondra

G
Outside the Box: Sounding Revolutions [or ‘How to Stage a Revolution’]
Prints and Drawings Study Room 

Join V&A Curator of Contemporary Performance Harriet Reed as she explores how British theatre in the 1970s and 80s used music to galvanise social and political revolutions. Drawing from our collection including works by Martin Walker for Half Moon Theatre, Greenwich Mural Workshop, and earlier 60s counterculture posters, learn more about how these pivotal decades of agitprop and local activism entwined with popular music.

H
FLÂNEUSE: Sounding the Quiet City
Gamble Room, Main Café

Interweaving songs, field recordings and improvised soundscapes, FLÂNEUSE re-imagines the city as a quiet place where slowness, nature and listening find their centre. Debuting unheard works from her upcoming release, FLÂNEUSE is joined by Tim Gardner (Wenlock Edge) on electronics, creating an exploration of her soundworld in real-time.

@flaneuseeee
@timg.ardner

I
Dear Hearing World
Japan, Room 45, The Toshiba Gallery

Dear Hearing World is a short f ilm directed by Adam Docker, based on Raymond Antrobus’ poem by the same name. The film blends Raymond’s spoken words with music and deaf actress Vilma Jackson’s powerful and thought-provoking performance in British Sign Language. This important work calls out ‘audio supremacy’ and asks us to acknowledge the deaf protagonist’s defiance at their treatment by the hearing world. The poem ‘Dear Hearing World’ is partly inspired by Danez Smith and is from Antrobus’s critically acclaimed debut poetry collection ‘The Perseverance’.

@baronmeister
@redearthstudio
@raymond_antrobus

J
From the Lips to the Moon
Medieval & Renaissance, Room 64b, The Simon Sainsbury Gallery

Immerse yourself in a live improvised performance of music and poetry by electronic music wizard Pouya Ehsaei and word trickster Tara Fatehi. Expect riveting live music, mind bending beats, fierce poetry, absurd texts, and hypnotic visuals, in collaboration with their guest artists, Binker Golding (sax), Tanaka Fuego (poet) and 2 Digit Visuals.

@lipstomoon
@pouyaehsaei
@tarafteh
@binkergolding
@tanaka.fuego
@2digitvisuals

K
Hatis Noit: Aura
The Lydia and Manfred Gorvy Lecture Theatre, Level 3

Japanese vocaliser Hatis Noit takes us to the limits of sound performing through her new album Aura, a transcendent journey carried solely through the power of her voice. The experimental voice artist merges influences from different vocal traditions to produce a record full of surprises and emotions. Aura finds its music in the embodiment of emotions through vocals as sounds and not as words.

@hatis_noit

L
Our Limitless Voice: Embodying Sound & Silence
National Art Library

Join NYX electronic drone choir’s Music Director Sian O’Gorman and Somatic Movement Director Imogen Knight for a deep exploration of sound, voice and embodiment within the walls of this traditionally silent space. Explore what it means to move and be heard and to create and belong inside our sounding bodies.

@nyx.edc

M
Nabihah Iqbal’s DREAMER
Tapestries, Room 94

To mark the release of her new album DREAMER, London based musician and producer Nabihah Iqbal celebrates the occasion with an immersive audio-visual installation in the Tapestry Galleries. The surround-sound album playback will be accompanied by ceiling projections from Nabihah’s new music videos and other visuals. Audience members are invited to lie back, gaze up and zone out to the music.

@nabihahiqbal

N
1941 by Asim Abdulaziz
Hochhauser Auditorium

This short experimental  film 1941 (2021) is a poetic meditation on the lack of agency in time and self during wartime. The film explores the sense of disorientation and alienation experienced by people during the ongoing war in Yemen. In a gender role reversal, shirtless men rely on knitting to distract themselves from reality, with its rhythmic repetitive movements locking them into a timeless present of becoming. 

@asim_aziiz