RBMA and CTM present the incomparable vocalist and composer Diamanda Galás, performing her new albums All the Way and O Death in Europe for the first time.
Throughout her career, Diamanda Galás has been an inimitable force in performances and pieces that combine art and activism, with an oeuvre encompassing opera, blues, jazz, harsh noise, electronics, rockabilly, goth and more. These genres coalesce into a singular artistic vision through her piano playing, exhilarating voice and interpretative power, all of which will be on display during this solo performance in the stunning Saal 1 room at Funkhaus Berlin. Galás’s appearance also includes an installation of Schrei 27 created together with filmmaker Davide Pepe, expanding on a 1994 radio piece and live performance for an audio visual work that depicts the tortured confession of a person taken to a mental hospital after being arrested for treason. (ctm-festival.de)
Diamanda Galás is hailed as one of the most important singers of our time. Galás has earned international acclaim for her highly original and politically charged performance works. Notable among these are Plague Mass, Defixiones: Orders from the Dead, Vena Cava, Schrei X and The Refugee. Most recently, her performance work has concerned the musical setting of texts written by exiled poets and writers worldwide. She was the first recipient of the Demetrio Stratos award, Italy’s prize for musical innovation.
In 2010 Galás collaborated with filmmaker Davide Pepe to create the experimental sound and film work Schrei 27, an unrelenting portrait of a body suffering torture in isolation. In 2012 Galás began her collaborations with orchestrator Jon Ølvind Ness, resulting in a groundbreaking concert with the Norwegian Radio Orchestra at the Kanonhallen. Also in 2012 Galás presented a lecture-performance, In the Mouth of the Crocodile, at the “Weaving Politics” Symposium in Stockholm (alongside Julia Kristeva and choreographer William Forsyth), and opened Antony Hegarty’s Meltdown Festival at the Southbank Centre in London.
Currently, in addition to continued touring, lecture-performances and experiments in visual art, Galás is completing a series of new recordings as well as remastered and remixed versions of earlier works to be released in 2016. Galás’ work in progress Espergesia will be a series of performances in highly reverberant sacred spaces. (diamandagalas.com)
