Sinken

IMAGE
IMAGE
Large
performance view with orchestra
© Granular Synthesis

Sinken was composed for a string orchestra and audio-visuals in extreme slow motion. As footage for the large-scale audio-visual installation, the duo Granular Synthesis uses video samples from a dance performance by Michael Ashcroft—as it also did previously for its works We Want God Now and Form. Whereas in those two works the visual focus was on the body of the dancer, in Sinken its traces are completely obliterated. A loud, flickering sound cluster made up of uniform glissandi performed by the strings, which is gradually becoming deeper and finally ending on (sub-)bass notes, is combined on four large screens with the almost monochrome, likewise flickering video. Image and sound tracks, their speed reduced to a minimum, develop a dramaturgy that barely touches on the border of perception: optical and acoustic stimuli become haptic material.