On tuesday March 22 HYOID and Myriam Van Imschoot will present newpolyphonies at MaerzMusik in Berlin!
In “newpolyphonies” four singers of HYOID join forces with 15 Berlin-based performers in a curious High Mass about little differences with big impact.
Manyfold, meditative, monstrous, machinic, messianic, mimetic, mesmerising, minuscule, mighty, methodical, momentary, mystical.
Inspired by insects, climate marches and airplane traffic coming to a halt, the leitmotif in this concert-performance is not the loud collective chant, but the experience that each individual – like a link in a chain – can set a vortex of sounds in motion.
“newpolyphonies” addresses the question of the democratisation of polyphonic art and its social implications. Developed with the Belgian vocal ensemble HYOID, the composition was created in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, at a time when the voice is suspect. Integrating the mouth mask as a performative instrument, “newpolyphonies” dialogues with the dystopian era through a play on vocal proximity and distance, and through the breaking down of barriers between stage and audience. Oscillating between lethargy and healing, “newpolyphonies” is an abstract allegory of a society that loses itself to find itself again.
“newpolyphonies” (2021) is a part of Myriam Van Imschoot’s trilogy, “What nature says?” (2015) and her upcoming work “Nocturnes pour une société” (2023).
Photo: © Beata Szpargowska