Cosmic Time

Performance

Louise Devenish | Rebecca Lloyd Jones | Thea Rossen, Carissa Soares

Cosmic Time is a performance work co-created by visual artist Michaela Gleave, composer Amanda Cole and percussionist Louise Devenish. The work takes concepts of time on a cosmological scale as a point of departure. Unfolding over 40 minutes, Cosmic Time explores representations of time ranging from the endless circling of planetary forms, to measures of time on Earth such as human breath and the fluttering heartbeats of desert mice, as well as abstractions of dissolving consciousness. It is presented as a sequence of eight overlapping movements representing forms of cosmic time: Big Bang, Cosmic Soup, Galactic, Stellar, Planetary, Chemical, Biological, and Esoteric. Performed by four spatialised percussionists, listeners embark on a sonic journey through explorations of time and space informed by historic scientific and musical concepts such as orbital resonance and harmonic sequencing. The work is centered around gentle metallic percussion instruments, sparkling clusters of bells and triangles, ultra low drums, gongs, cymbals, and a wide range of singing bowls, microtonal tubes and chimes. Together, these instruments pulse, blend and resonate together, to evoke sonic representations of atmospheres, sensations, and rhythms through time and space.