The Black of the Star

Overview

It might sound like a cross between death metal and a trip to Scienceworks, but the utterly unique combination at the heart The Black of the Star makes this an unmissable event in this year’s Melbourne Festival.

With the help of SIAL Sound Studio director Lawrence Harvey, six percussionists will be beaming in the cosmic signals of two rotating neuron stars ('pulsars'), drawing on access to the CSIRO’s Parkes telescope (made famous by Australian classic, The Dish). The energy from these signals will be translated into a sound recording that will become the metronomic pulse at the heart of an already stellar composition.

The piece was created in 1990 by French avant-garde composer Gerard Grisey, and these festival performances by Speak Percussion will mark its Melbourne premiere. Speak Percussion is already made up of some of Australia’s most accomplished individual percussionists, but the ensemble will no doubt be rounded out by the sounds of these two real stars, each more than 7 million light years away.