London Contemporary Music Festival's The Big Sad Explores Digital Melancholia Through Experimental Performances
The 2022 installment of the London Contemporary Music Festival, named The Big Sad, took place over five nights at Woolwich Works, centering on themes of sadness. Elvin Brandhi's GIFF WRECK (2022) presented a video call infused with autotuned screams and disordered musical arrangements. Stom Sogo's films, Silver Play and Ya Private Sky (2001), depicted online loneliness through distorted visuals. Oliver Leith's Pearly, goldy, woody, bloody, or, Abundance (2022) humorously critiqued elite gatherings. Mariam Rezaei's SADTITZZZ (2020) featured intricate sound collages. Tyshawn Sorey's For Roscoe Mitchell (2020) showcased free jazz with Deni Teo and Roscoe Mitchell. The festival concluded with Joëlle Léandre's improvised performances on double bass, while Triad God's Coda (2022) examined themes of anonymity, and Aura Satz and Sarah Davachi's The Grief Interval (2020) combined power plant imagery with organ sounds.
Key facts
- The London Contemporary Music Festival's 2022 edition was titled The Big Sad
- Events took place at Woolwich Works in southeast London
- The festival featured five curated evenings of music and visual art
- Program explored melancholia as 'fundamental passion of the hyperreal order'
- Featured Jean Baudrillard's concept of 'vertiginous seduction of a dying system'
- Referenced Alex Mazey's 2021 book Sad Boy Aesthetics
- Included commissioned works by Elvin Brandhi, Oliver Leith, and Triad God
- Featured performances by Roscoe Mitchell, Kikanju Baku, and Joëlle Léandre
Entities
Artists
- Elvin Brandhi
- Alex Mazey
- Jean Baudrillard
- Stom Sogo
- Oliver Leith
- Mariam Rezaei
- Tyshawn Sorey
- Deni Teo
- Roscoe Mitchell
- Kikanju Baku
- Triad God
- Aura Satz
- Sarah Davachi
- Kali Malone
- Joëlle Léandre
- Burial
Institutions
- London Contemporary Music Festival
- Woolwich Works
- Art Ensemble of Chicago
Locations
- London
- United Kingdom
- Chicago
- United States