Taster event for the anxiety 2014 Arts and Mental Health Festival

As a taster event for the anxiety 2014 Arts and Mental Health Festival the festival’s artistic director Errol Francis and sound artist Andrew Locke have co-curated an evening of extreme electronica and ambient tones to address the theme of anxiety at Christmas.

Christmas and the festive period brighten up the darkest and coldest months of our earths cycle around our very own star. It is a time for the bearing of gifts, to come together with our close ones, do kind charitable deeds, and celebrate in many ways including the commemoration of the birth of Christ. However, it can for some, and indeed all of us, be a time of terrible anxiety. Navigating the shops, organising social events, and hoping that it all runs smoothly, but there is also a need to reflect and remember previous years, happy, or sad times, that can some times be painful to re experience. It is a time of year when we all experience this anxiety to a lesser or greater degree.

As a response to this let us think about sound and music, and the healing potential that sonorous vibrations can be as we listen. Music can have power over our emotions in a way that still remains mysterious to us.

With this in mind we are staging a night of sonic cutting edge performance exploring extremes in electronic sound. The theme is Christmas anxiety, its soothing sonification, and we hope you can celebrate with us!

Taigen Kawabe will perform an intense voice and guitar exorcism for which he has become well known.

Lisa Hall will improvise a laptop performance that will reflect sonic interventions within urban settings.

Luke Dodson will perform khoomei (throat-singing), as well as reflective gentle songs on the acoustic guitar.

Lima Lapelyte will be singing hiphop songs with guest appearances by Olga Nosova, Cian McConn, Vivienne Griffin, Lise Hovesen and more. Expect the unexpected!

Philip Cornet will perform ethereal and intimate live voice and cello.

Laura Dean will use a lyrical blend of storytelling and spoken word to share some of her personal experiences of living with anxiety and obsessive compulsive disorder since she was a young child.