St John at Hackney, London
Producer Darren Cunningham's dance and video collaboration with Eddie Peak and Nic Hamilton has ambitious aims but lacks drama
Actress may be one of the most fascinating and nuanced producers on the contemporary electronica scene, but the sonic alchemist who was born Darren Cunningham has recently chafed at the restrictions of his role. In interviews he's declared himself to be no mere musician but "an artist, painting with buttons and sliders, and longing to bring an extra, visual dimension to his work …"
That desire has led him to this one-off multimedia performance, A Shared Cultural Memory. It's a collaboration with art world enfant terrible Eddie Peake, who choreographs a troupe of female dancers, and with videographer Nic Hamilton, who projects images of blasted nature and cityscapes on the venue's walls.
Aiming to examine what the artists call "the decomposition of faith and trust", it is a laudably ambitious venture. Unfortunately, it falls well short because of the glaring disconnect between the performers. Actress is not the problem; a brooding, hooded presence behind his laptop, he fires out shards of brutalist, atmospheric glitch-pop and rumbles of subterranean sub-bass that have the church pews vibrating.
The soundtrack is portentous and cries out for flamboyant interpretation, but the usually provocative Peake shows no sign of the requisite imagination and daring, and merely guides his dancers through a series of tedious tableaux and some mild stretching, as if it were a gentle Pilates class. The impact of Hamilton's visuals is lessened because the church wall he projects them on houses a stained glass window that interrupts their flow.
A scattergun, partly improvised collaboration of three very abstract performers, this is a ragbag of an evening that aches to appear profound and meaningful, but never becomes more than the sum of its self-absorbed parts. If Actress is to locate the creative extra dimension he craves, he will have to look elsewhere.
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by Ian Gittins via Music: Electronic music | theguardian.com
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