Michaela Coventry is the Producer of Helen Svoboda’s major performance projects including Headwater.
Headwater follows a stream of consciousness, guided by ideas unrealised and vaporized. The self here becomes water, dispersed across a collage of thoughts and earworms that appear and evaporate into the next – never quite settling, but always moving.
A work by double bassist/vocalist Helen Svoboda, this music performance dissects her eclectic solo identity across six bodies in space – three humans, and three double basses. As Svoboda navigates the ever-changing subconscious, she is joined by Finnish vocalist Selma Savolainen and Sydney double bassist Jacques Emery to bring each fleeting vignette towards a visible life – if only for a brief moment. Expect miniature songs, moments of stark beauty, and occasional nonsensical Finnish language, highlighted by Tilman Robinson as a sound avatar, lighting from Alex Nguyen, and movement direction from choreographer Jo Lloyd.
Nominated for a 2024 Green Room Award and Art Music Award.
World Premiere: Thursday 17th October to Saturday 19th October 2024
ABOUT
Helen Svoboda is a double bassist, vocalist and composer. Her work explores the melodic potential of the contemporary double bass, intricately weaving extended techniques and overtones with vocal tessiture amidst abstract song-writing and vegetable-themed compositions. “A musician who absolutely defies categorisation” (Andrew Ford – The Music Show, ABC), her performance practice emits a childlike, quirky energy, with a flair for “allowing difficult ideas to sound whimsical and free” (Kristin Berardi, AUS).
sage-arts.com 