PART I (Famine/Feast)
ALONE (famine) features Joan La Barbara singing with an electronic
accompaniment triggered by the air drums, and a close-up video version of a
prerecorded vocal solo (without sound).
VOICES is a flowing musical quartet of live voice and three computer voices
with a video tapestry of the vocalist in a new landscape.
CELEBRATION (feast) is a playful interplay between the musicians, the computer
and video.
PART 2 (Genesis)
HAND DANCE. The dancer enters with only her hands illuminated. The video
amplifies the movements.
FLOOR DANCE. The dancer moves on the floor and her image emerges in a projected
video oval.
CHILD AND MOTHER. A series of images of woman and baby form a layered visual
poem.
LULLABY. A trio for voice, cello and computer which overlaps the end of "Child
and Mother" and the beginning of "I Want".
"I WANT." The images of eye and mouth alternative as the vocalist sings
accompanied by her voice on the video tape.
PART 3 (Famine/Feast)
ALONE is now a shorter, more florid trio between the vocalist and two digital
versions of her voice while images of her face move rapidly in space (amongst
the monitors).
CELEBRATION is an extended and developed version of the original celebration
which climaxes in "combat dances" which feature the dancer and video
projections.
EPILOUGE
With the air drum, the vocalist plays a crashing sound which results in a long
"frozen" note cluster, while the dancer creates living masks. As the cluster
comes to life the musicians begin to play a dreamlike version of the
celebration music which is joined later by a trio of voice, computer and cello
performing an extensive elaboration of the original famine solo. Throughout
this, enlarged images of a new hand dance are seen, accompanied by video images
of lovers. The work ends with a video closeup of a vocal solo without sound.
