A double-feature concert with Jami Reimer, Rayannah, Los Dias Floreados, Carol Ann Bohrn exploring transformation, grief, and the deep connections between humans, nature, and memory.

Soft tongues, performed by Jami Reimer, interweaves solo and choral singing, text, video, and field recording practices in an ongoing and shifting investigation around chorusing— specifically, into the overlapping vocal terrains between humans and amphibians. Soft tongues invites full swamp submersion as audiences listen episodically through the shapeshifting life (and afterlife) cycle of the frog.

Dirge is the meeting of Chilean psych-rock musician Los Dias Floreados, Franco-Manitoban beat-maker and looping artist Rayannah, and contemporary dancer Carol-Ann Bohrn. Launching from themes of grief, the ad-hoc trio confronts the paradox of stagnation and spiraling—the classic human experience of never being able to truly return to a place, because the place has changed and so have they.

Through noisy soundscapes, asymmetrical movement, dense synthesizers, and cyclical motion, the performers lay out a space that is both structured and open, available to respond to one another. Set to beguiling visuals by Saskatoon-based projection artist Stephanie Kuse, the piece oscillates between visual, aural and kinesthetic fields.

Dirge dwells in the tension between the solitary terrain of grief and the collective act of mourning, where the unspeakable finds shape when it is witnessed.

Co-presented with the West End Cultural Centre

This event is made possible with the support of Key Partner, Video Pool Media Arts Centre.