Dedalus Ensemble: Motor Tapes

Standard £22 // Solidarity £28.60 // Under 30 £7
Advance booking required

Our Solidarity ticket price is an opportunity for audiences to support our work by purchasing a ticket at a slightly higher price (the cost of a Standard ticket plus 30%). Read more about Solidarity prices here.

Dedalus Ensemble:
Didier Aschour guitar / artistic direction
Amélie Berson flute
Cyprien Busolini viola
Eric Chalan double bass
Denis Chouillet piano
Stéphane Garin vibraphone / percussion
Deborah Walker cello
Thierry Madiot trombone
Pierre-Stéphane Meugé saxophone
Christian Pruvost trumpet
Silvia Tarozzi violin
Fabrice Villard clarinet
Benjamin Maumus sound

Sarah Hennies (US, 1979)
Motor Tapes (2023) 60’ UK Premiere

Click here to view programme note

Is the frantic rhythm of airport life – hectic, repetitive, disorientating – a mirror of the loops that define our human existence? The endless cycles of walking, sleeping, waking, working, breathing, blinking – the steady beat of a heart. Where do the sounds we suddenly hear within ourselves come from?

Acclaimed French ensemble Dedalus, celebrated for their approach to open-instrumentation scores and their collaborative, experimental spirit, return to hcmf// with a seminal piece by US composer Sarah Hennies. In Motor Tapes, Hennies – hcmf// 2025 Composer in Residence – explores these ideas with striking originality. Drawing on the work of pioneering neuroscientists Oliver Sacks and Rodolfo Llinás, she investigates the strange and beautiful connections between motor memory and creativity. Llinás introduced the concept of ‘motor tapes’ – looping patterns in the brain that drive both movement and imagination. Creativity, he suggests, is not just a rational act but a more primal process: a constant stream of neurological noise shaped by subconscious habits and repetitive actions.

Through Motor Tapes, Hennies invites us to tune into this internal pulse – a world of inner repetition, random signals, and unexpected resonance. The result is a captivating sound experience that questions what it means to move, to think, and to create.

Produced by hcmf// supported by hcmf// Benefactors Allan and Mo Tennant

Dedalus is supported by DRAC Occitanie, Conseil Régional Occitanie, SACEM and SPEDIDAM. The ensemble has also received support from the Institut Français, Fonds Diaphonique, FACE, Impuls Neue Musik, Occitanie en Scène and Maison de la Musique Contemporaine.

Motor Tapes is commissioned by Dedalus and GMEA – Centre National de Création Musicale d’Albi-Tarn

Photo: Dedalus Ensemble © Christophe Chaverou