Beneath language, a vast land of possibilities lingers in our vocal territories, here lives the Memory of Voice. What we say, the words and tones we choose to tell and sing our stories, define our memories. Memory arises from what is spoken, memory is voice. 

The Assembly is an immersive sound ritual at the crossroad between physical and virtual worlds. Here, the human and digital merge to revisit the ancient practice of collective singing. Immersed in a multi-sensorial space of “The Assembly”, you encounter The Memory of Voice, a mystic creature living in a world of dreamy beats and bodily sounds.

The MoV initiates you into different practices of sounding together, inviting you to compose in virtual reality, play in an interactive installation or simply enjoy the sound of endless human expression during a performance-concert.

The project is mobile and currently touring from Luxembourg to France and Lithuania as part of the “European Capital of Culture 2022” program. www.theassemblyproject.org

AN IMMERSIVE SOUND RITUAL

As you enter The Assembly, you plunge into the MoV’s universe and become part of a larger collective song composed of vocal expressions.

The Assembly oscillates between an individual and collective experience. In the interactive sound installation, you wander through a maze of veils, sometimes meeting others or guessing their presence through their shadows and the discreet sound of their footsteps.

As you interact with the sound shapes dotting the space, they trigger sounds that feed into the ongoing spatial composition, transforming the human voice into dreamy beats. Immersed in an ever-changing light bath, you witness the dance of the Memory of Voice projected as the veils undulating through space.

In the intimacy of individual cocoons, you enter virtual reality where you encounter the MoV face to face. As you move to trigger sounds around you, you free yourself from isolation and become part of a multi-dimensional instrument to orchestrate a song with four other players in what becomes a collective dance.

As you leave the virtual world to step back into the installation space, you meet the players you first encountered in VR. Here, the performer invests the space to embody the MoV in interventions. The MoV initiates collective moments of singing, interacts with the audience and shares moments of vocal and danced compositions within the multi-layered instrument of The Assembly. You can participate, or just hang out at the edge of the installation, immersed in a 360 degree ambisonic sound system.

Each iteration of this ritualistic experience is unique, bringing together audiences from a variety of backgrounds. On this journey the digital becomes a conductive surface to transform individual voices into one  collective expression.

To experience the different dimensions of the space we recommend to spend at least one hour in “The Assembly”.

A CONCERT-PERFORMANCE (Duration 1h)

At night, we invite you to an hour-long concert-performance, The Memory of Voice. They take you on a theatrical journey into the preciousness of our memories and the power our voices hold to write our stories.

Various music genres (blues, mantra singing, lament,…) are infused by electronics and interjected with theatrical interactions.

The whole installation space transforms into a concert stage where the performer and an electronic live musician perform alongside audiences free to move around and follow the performer through the space.

From screaming our existence into the world, to imitating others and navigating our way through language, we learn to tune our voices into each other. This piece is a homage to the expressive power of our voices.

“The Assembly” special closing programme on the 13th of August 7pm–8pm. Freestyle jam session by Pouya Ehsaei. Entrance free of charge.