Live Stream
Eugene Ughetti percussion
Kaylie Melville percussion
Lamine Sonko percussion
Tilman Robinson audio editing / mixing
Eugene Ughetti (Australia, 1980), Lamine Sonko (Senegal, 1984), Kaylie Melville (Australia, 1986), Tilman Robinson (Germany, 1985)
Before Nightfall #12 Hyenas UK Premiere (2020) 43’
Escapologists at heart, Speak Percussion like to put themselves under intense conditions and see how they come out on the other side. The Australian ensemble seeks out ambitious, conceptualised projects that ‘redefine the potential of percussion’. Their newest project, Before Nightfall, is about chance collaboration and quick turnaround, each edition of the project seeing the group working with a new guest artist over the course of a day. After getting to know each other, rehearsing together, and establishing potential ideas, they produce a live performance that becomes the next Before Nightfall.
They like surprises, Speak Percussion, and 2020 is as good a curveball as any: under Covid-19 conditions, the ‘live’ element of Before Nightfall has been thrown out of the window. They’ve spent this year making new editions of the project that respond to film, rescoring old visuals with new music. In Before Nightfall #12, they worked with Senegalese percussionist Lamine Sonko, who suggested they adapt the soundtrack of Hyenas. The piece retains the same intensity as previous editions of the project; what you hear as you watch the film is a real-time response to the images on screen, the intuition of a group of artists who have just met and are instinctively learning from one another.
Released in 1992, Hyenas was directed by Djibril Diop Mambéty, a director who had a brief but emphatic impact on Senegalese cinema. Based on the stage play The Visitor, Mambéty’s film is built on an eerie premise: a woman returns to her hometown, a commune in Dakar, having amassed great wealth, and promises to make the residents rich if they commit an act of revenge for her. The film carries disturbing irony and a wry sense of humour, Sonko pointing to it as an allegory of ‘wealth, corruption, and consumerism’. It also carries cultural elements Sonko recognises in Senegal: ‘One thing I really like about the film is that the narrative is rare. It’s very different to the usual narrative we hear or see about African culture, and it’s important that work like this can be highlighted for people to see’.
Based in Melbourne, Sonko has been an artist his whole life, and credits his Gewel heritage as a driving force behind his practice. He comes from a family of artists. His parents both worked in the National Theatre of Senegal, also touring their work internationally; from a young age, his siblings got into poetry and dance, finding their own outlet. As for Sonko, he was keen to develop as a musician. He was part of the Swiss-based Compagnie des Cries, fronted the afro-beat band the African Intelligence and has released a wide range of albums, eschewing any one particular genre. In his work, he is keen to uphold the griot practice: ‘Griots are known as historians of West African oral history. They hold a secret language of rhythm that has been around for centuries.’ Through this medium, he strives to unite ancient and modern elements of his culture’s history.
Sonko keeps his culture at the core of what he does, both in and outside of Senegal. ‘In Australia, I want to make sure I stay connected with my roots by incorporating the Gewel knowledge in all of my work’. Using Hyenas as a visual representation, the music he contributes to Before Nightall #12 is an attempt at musically unfolding the motifs you see on screen. ‘In the Hyena film there are lots of cultural symbols and rhythms that inform the way I approach my composition. I dig deep into the meaning of those cultural symbols and rhythms –I incorporate that in my composition in this film’.
Supported by City of Melbourne and City of Darebin; Hyenas is produced by Thelma Film and Pierre-Alain Meier; directed and written by Djibril Diop Mambèty with cinematography by Mathias Kälin; edited for adaptation by Bernadette Murray and Loredana Cristelli; audio recording by Michael Hewes.