Omit/Transmit Orchestra performs two pieces live in the Catacombs, the basement venue at Epiphany Center for the Arts, Apr. 11, 2025. An excerpt from each piece is presented here, video courtesy of Shravan Raghuram. The entire performance ran 30 minutes, and was followed by a gorgeous solo cello set by Dorothy Carlos with live freeform drawing by Allegra Harvard.
The first part (above) is a new version of ‘Orbituaries,’ a dramatic structure depicting the increasingly chaotic orbit of planets in a dying solar system. Each player embodies a planet, lit by flickering lamps to illustrate the closest and most remote points in their orbits around their sun. The music is mostly improvised over collage of spoken text read from 20th century sci-fi short stories.
The second part features a new, original composition for five musicians and two dancers, D Jean Baptiste and Hannah Marcus. A natural landscape of a collapsed environment is raised from collective memories. A cycle of dance gestures paired with musical motif are repeated, illustrating the forest floor, the branches overhead, a nearby creek, geothermal vents, insects, and birds. The gestures were composed ahead of time, a narrative order was assigned, and the final execution including duration, repeats, and interactions between musicians and dancers was improvised.
This performance features electric guitar, violin, upright bass, trumpet, 3 synthesizers, and 2 dancers.
