Rehearsal, Aug 2016

RAGA DAWN by Caroline Bergvall is a sonic artwork that consists of a composition for two live voices together with a site-specific soundscape. The work is contextualised by the slow rising of day drawing on ancient and contemporary musical and literary sunrise traditions, such as troubadour love poetry. As an extension of this, the work addresses the linguistic territories of the UK and EU, specifically, languages that are endangered or at risk, and those that emerge from recent settlement. The central song of the performance has been written by the celebrated British composer Gavin Bryars. 

The performance begins during the final hours of the night continuing into the early morning, and is completed with the rising of the sun. Directly following the performance is a communal social breakfast for all those in attendance to actively participate in collective discussion to involve and reconnect audiences to time, place and each other. 

RAGA DAWN is supported by Arts Council England, Ville de Genève, Etat de Genève, Fondation Wilsdorf, and Fondation Göhner. The work is partnered with two major festivals where it will premiere in September 2016, and co-produced by Metal, Southend-on-Sea, and Festival de la Batie, Geneva. RAGA DAWN will embark on an international tour in 2017. Get tickets to UK performance here

Concept/text/spoken performance: Caroline Bergvall

Vocal Composition: Gavin Bryars

Singer: Peyee Chen

Live Programmer: Ben Corrigan

Site-specific Sound Engineer: Sam Grant

Artistic Collaborator: Michele Pralong

2016 Creative Producer: Dea Vanagan

2017 Tour & Creative Producer: Emma Wilcox

Project Partners: METAL/Estuary festival & Festival de la Batie