Remont Pomp + Rhodri Davies / Áine O’Dwyer (duo) + Agnès Pe

Counterflows kicks off with a night of sprawling collaborative endeavour.

Spanish multi-media artist Agnès Pe opens the festival with a performance of ‘Doo, who, rrrr or brrr. A masquerade symphony’, a composition for multiple kazoos, performed by a selection of people who have no knowledge of musical notation. The cyclical structure of the composition is inspired by “Pagsamba” by Filipino composter José Maceda, which was composed for a mixed group of 100 voices and various instruments and bamboo gongs, with performers arranged around the room.

Teasing the creative boundaries of the harp, Rhodri Davies (Wales) and Áine O’Dwyer (Ireland) will present a new duo performance. Both are Counterflows alumni of some sort, having appeared in our past programmes several times. They bring a weight of experience and radicality to the harp, forming deep and critical investigations into its potential in and around improvisation, folk music, sound art and experimental composition.

Rounding off the evening will be a performance by Poland’s Remont Pomp, a percussion group, forgoing standardised Western drums for African percussive instruments and everyday objects: barrels, bottles, wine glasses, and other nik-naks. Working in a circular formation around a dinner table, they bring the rituals of the every day into a lopsided present, acting both of as a collaborative experiment and therarpy group for its members.