Club night and record label Nonclassical joins forces with opera company Carmen Elektra Opera Collective to present, 'Kafka Fragments', a night of contemporary music exploring the issues faced by survivors of torture living in the UK as part of 'Freedom from Torture Presents…' a festival of music in celebration of International Human Rights Day in December. Inspired by Kafkaesque themes of alienation, absurdity and restricted freedom, the event draws attention to the situation facing many survivors of torture in the UK: one in which experiences of poverty and a dehumanising and baffling asylum system can act as a barrier to long-term recovery.
György Kurtág's 'Kafka Fragments' for soprano and violin (based on extracts from the author's diaries).
Plus, , new works by emerging composers specially commissioned specially for the event, setting and responding to texts written by torture survivors from Freedom from Torture's creative writing group, Write to Life.
Kate Whitely's 'Scars' (text by Stephanie Ndoungo) a short opera for soprano and chamber ensemble.
Thom Andrewes's 'MLR' (text by Tim Malmo) for soprano, speaker and trio.
Gregor Riddell's 'Minding the gap' (text by Amina Abdalla) for electronics two sopranos and cello.
Laurence Osborn's 'A mind like the Northern Line' (text by Amina Abdalla), for two sopranos, two double basses and percussion.
Jude Carlton's ' Waiting' (text by Noah), for tenor, piano and percussion.
William Marsey's 'I Do Not Belong Here' (text by Ozgur), for baritone and two guitars.
(In-between sets, Nonclassical resident DJ Gabriel Prokofiev crisscrosses the worlds of modernist and experimental music, with nods to glitch, hip hop, ambient and beyond.)