Academy of Music and Drama Chamber Choir, University of Gothenburg

A choral piece based on the nine tones of the Cantonese language, an imagination of the disappearing process of the language.

Such Are the Fading Sounds for 9 Voices

As the Flâneur Marches to Oblivion..

A ‘fictitious entry’ is false information deliberately inserted into books, maps, encyclopedias, etc. It epitomises the psyche of the so-called ‘post-truth’ world when it finds its way into traditional/ social media. This simulacrum challenges our capacity to evaluate values and truth. The struggle of getting hold of what is ‘real’ is intensified in light of recent social unrest, the pandemic and the worldwide lockdown. Now, we are forced to confront ourselves, our relationship and ‘the world outside’ in a different light. 

In this work, sound from contact microphones that were attached to both the inside and the outside of the Hong Kong Arts Centre building is mixed with its digital rendition. Now recorded, the originally live and pre-composed digital sounds were manipulated in a real-time performance, creating a hyper-realistic, dreamlike soundscape that exists in between fiction and reality.

Artist Biography

As a composer and sound artist, Alain Chiu's body-of-works sits firmly at the juncture of contemporary music, sound art and multimedia art. It ranges from traditional music, sound installations, experimental musical theatre, to virtual reality videos and video installations. Chiu has received commissions from the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority, Hong Kong New Music Ensemble, Hong Kong Sinfonietta, Hong Kong Arts Festival Society, Kung Music Workshop and Sotheby's Hong Kong. His works have been performed in concert halls and festivals around the world and he is the founder of the Trilateral Lab, an experimental performance collective.

Alain Chiu: Fictitious Entry

Composer of mainly contemporary classical music!

Such Are the Fading Sounds for 9 Voices

Joshua Wat

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