Re-imagining Shostakovich

Re-imagining Schostakovich at the Colton Hall, Bristol, 27th November 2005

As part of the Colston Halls Lefteld series of concerts were were teamed up with the Philharmonia Orchestra, conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy, to remix Shostakovich’s 6th symphony – to perform in the bar directly after the live orchestral performance in the auditorium.

For this I programmed bespoke live audio-processing software with samples recorded from the live performance. I based this on the Jungulator software, and stepped it up to an octophonic output. As part of this design, shapes were encoded into panning of the music. Swastikas, hammers and sickles, and Jewish stars were some of the shapes that spun over the (unaware) audience’s head. The audio processed was recorded from the live performance.

The visuals were a combination recorded footage and a pre-made montage, which cheapened the whole affair…