blue
Dangerous Song - Blue connects our hearts with the planet’s heart through the exquisite combination of endangered animal calls with the human voice and stunning underwater cinematography. The one hour performance EVOKES an emotional connection and response to the sometimes “hard to swallow” facts about the current Sixth Extinction Crisis and state of our oceans, inspiring understanding, love and hopefully action. There is no narrative, as we already know most of the story, even if we choose to ignore it and don’t know the ending. It’s a song for the planet - an inter-species choral work, and they’re singing for their lives! If their calls don’t affect you then nothing will.
“People ask: Why should I care about the ocean?
Because
It’s the cornerstone of earth's life support system, It shapes climate and weather
It holds most of life on earth
97% of earth's water is there
It's the blue heart of the planet —
and, we should take care of our heart.” Dr Sylvia Earle
The Performance
Dangerous Song - Blue combines the human voice with the sounds of endangered animals to create an intriguing and moving musical performance, and ultimately a new musical language.
Linsey Pollak plays a midi wind instrument where breath, lip pressure and fingering control the performance of animal call samples (mostly sourced from the Centre for Biological Diversity). He uses Live-looping technology to instantaneously record layers of music as he plays. The animals are from the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List and include a diverse range of species including whales, seals, walrus, fish and sea birds.
Lizzie O’Keefe joins him, weaving her voice in and out of the musical landscape of animal sounds that Linsey provides in a series of original “songs”. This collaboration takes us to a world of sound where the human and the animal combine into a sort of sonic morphing.
This sonic world is mirrored by the visual superimposition of the natural world onto the human performers using projection. To do this, Linsey and Lizzie perform from within a 3D scrim (semi- transparent screen) with the shape of a giant aquarium. Underwater moving images are then projected onto the aquarium shaped scrim giving the impression that the musicians are performing underwater.
Renowned and celebrated underwater cinematographer David Hannan has provided the stunning moving images and they are truly magical.
Dangerous Song - Blue is second in the series – the first being Black, which has been performed in both performance and concert mode to a wonderful response. A CD of Black was launched in October 2016. Blue premiered at Woodford Folk Festival 28 – 30 December 2016 to a highly enthusiastic audience and is now available for touring and performances at environmental, science, arts and community events.
The Creative Team
Linsey Pollak - Live looping endangered animal calls using midi wind controller
Lizzie O’Keefe - Voice
David Hannan - Cinematographer
