Free Event
Helen Anahita Wilson electronics / synth / percussion / vocals
Amos Miller trombone
Helen Anahita Wilson (UK, 1981)
Nightshade (2024) 44’ World Premiere
i. Nicotine hit
ii. one potato
iii. Rasayana
iv. two potato
v. Devil’s trumpet
vi. three potato, four
vii. Bella donna
Nightshade digs deep into the creative possibilities of composing with bioelectricity, biorhythms and biodata from the solanaceae family of flowering plants – also known as the nightshades. Composer and researcher Helen Anahita Wilson’s creative relationship with plants has developed far beyond sonification to a new form of artistic sonation: an interspecies compositional collaboration with the natural world, interpreting plant signatures and physiological activities through the application of experimental Western and South Asian compositional techniques.
Incorporating recordings from the porcupine tomato and the deadly, screaming mandrake, to name but two, Nightshade is a musical transduction of the toxic and edible traits of this diverse plant family into a collection of new works. These range from potato-generated, inflorescent technoglitch to actinomorphic harmonies derived from the bisexual flowers of the deadly nightshade atropa belladonna.
Produced by hcmf// as part of The Current Climate; supported by Hinrichsen Foundation, Vaughan Williams Foundation, PRS Foundation Talent Development Network supported by PPL and PRS Foundation Women Make Music
Photo credit: Matt Favero
Getting There
Venue: Phipps Hall (Second Floor, Richard Steinitz Building)
Accessibility: Accessibility information is available here. Further information on campus accessibility is available on the University of Huddersfield website.
What three words: ///opera.flock.anyone
Address: Queensgate, England, HD1 3DH, United Kingdom.