Soil Biographies connects music, soil and queer imagination.
Soil Biographies is a sensory sound performance in which two versatile artists, Louis Vanhaverbeke and Farida Amadou, engage in a musical dialogue with the earth. Together, they create a ritual performance about the subconscious, growth and hidden life. About the ground beneath our feet and the voices that rise from it.
Following a period of mental turmoil, theatre maker Louis Vanhaverbeke found solace in farming. Contact with the earth became his way of staying literally connected to the world. Farida Amadou, an acclaimed bassist on the international improvisation scene, approaches sound as a physical force. Her practice is rooted in attentive listening and physical presence, whereby ‘grounding’ is not only a connection to the earth, but also a way of connecting with oneself and with others through sound.
Together, they construct a playing field in which the earth becomes both a backdrop, an instrument and a fellow performer. They unearth hidden feelings, lost objects, discomfort, comfort and everything that usually remains beneath the surface. Between beauty and filth, a breathing and spellbinding landscape of sound and transformation emerges. The earth becomes a source of sound, whilst sounds cause the earth to vibrate.