Primordial

Piano: Gabriella Smart
Music: Constantine Koukias
Tape Sound Design: Mischa Duncan te Pas
Lighting Design: Jason James

Commissioned by The Hon. Christopher Schacht & Soundstream

A soundscape that condenses several million years of shifting Tectonic forces as the first complex life form on earth emerged. This is Primordial, a unique merging of science and sound.

PRIMORDIAL is a visceral listening experience that re-enacts the shifting of tectonic plates to form the Flinders Ranges in South Australia, a journey through time to the first sign of life on earth with the appearance of the Ediacara fossils. The sonic world of PRIMORDIAL reflects the immense landscape of the Ediacara Fossil field on the edge of the Australian desert. Composer Constantine Koukias imagines the sound of shifting tectonic plates through manipulated piano preparations and electronics to create cascading waves of sound. The piano as we know it is reinvented, its resonance reflecting a haunting, fragile sound world. Gabriella Smart pounds and caresses the piano, cajoling beautiful and extraordinary prepared sounds that are symbiotic with Koukias’ electronic score.

“Koukias’ sharp and at times fragile music miraculously reflected this vast landscape on the edge of the Australian desert”

— Thomas Tamvakos, Archive of Greek Composers, 2020