Richard Barrett & Milana Zarić
Wednesday 26th February 2025, 6:00 PM at Clothworkers Centenary Concert Hall, The School of Music, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT.
Richard Barrett – Pektis
Richard Barrett – Restless Horizon
Milana Zarić – Ignis
Richard Barrett – Hylozoon
Milana Zarić – Grottesche
Performers
Richard Barrett – electronics
Milana Zarić – acoustic and electric harps / electronics / voice
Richard Barrett (electronics) Milana Zarić (acoustic and electric harps, electronics, voice)
Richard Barrett – pektis (vocalising harpist)
Richard Barrett & Milana Zarić – restless horizon (electric harp & electronics)
Milana Zarić – ignis (harp and fixed media)
Richard Barrett – hylozoon (electronics)
Richard Barrett & Milana Zarić – grottesche (acoustic & electric harps & electronics)
At the centre of this programme is the idea of extending an ancient instrument into new territories. The title of Richard Barrett’s pektis invokes the ancient Greek harp, with the player singing a fragmentary text by Sappho. The two collaborative compositions by Milana Zarić and Richard Barrett add electric harp and live processing to expand and multiply the instrument further. Grottesche invokes a tradition of paintings based on symmetrical configurations of human-organic-architectural hybrid images, originating in the Roman empire and flowering in the Renaissance, with references to 16th century music. These are complemented by Milana Zarić’s own electric harp piece ignis and Richard Barrett’s solo piece hylozoon for his own keyboard/computer instrument.