Conceived and Composed by Anaïs Maviel
Directed and Designed by LILLETH
Anaïs Maviel —vox, keys, percussion, composition
Chiquita Magic—vox, keys, percussion
Rema Hasumi—vox, keys, percussion
Shahzad Ismaily—vox, keys, percussion
Alexis Marcelo—vox, keys, percussion
Melvis Santa—vox, keys, percussion
Custom made instruments by Jonatan Malm
From Anaïs Maviel, 2019 Van Lier Fellow
“I dreamed a piece involving synthesizers and custom-made percussion instruments, played by an ensemble of vocalists/multi-instrumentalists—mediators between ancient, future and the multiple relations of sound to self, space and time. This is the premise for developing songs as cells of an organism, parting and fusing fragments of an ever-changing story of one and many characters, reflecting micro and macro-cosmos of a transitory moment, aka this time around.”
In the second performance of her year-long Van Lier Fellowship, composer and vocalist Anaïs Maviel presents Time is Due—a musical drama designed for a multitude of textures performed by a large electro-acoustic ensemble. Accompanied by five other multi-instrumentalists, this piece is an extension of the artist’s solo work where she invites each collaborator and their universe of sounds as a unique composer and improvisor to sing and rotate around various percussion and harmonic instruments. With six voices and twelve hands, Maviel can explore more complex polyrhythm and counterpoint and multi-directional meditations on relational matters.
Drifting towards trance, Time is Due addresses common yet complex human questions present in collective singing traditions since the dawn of humanity: what is our coexistence made of? How is coexistence transformative? How is culture relaying our ability to reach one another? Is there a line we can call separation between each other and how? Is love enough of an instinct to teach us coexistence?
Using music as a matrix to hint at the multiplicity and ubiquity of one tone, one word, one moment in time, and one self, mutable characters represent evolving archetypes, and relay each other on questioning the existence of love as an ideal relationship conduit—which requires clearing. Exploring the entrancing percussive power of keyboard language in relation to futuristic possibilities of sound synthesis, as well as concentric cycles of breath and heart beat already present in nature-based music making, the piece aims to bring insight into our existence at large as inherently interdependent. Song will be a common ground to develop this multi-layered conversation, in its quality to carry both personal and impersonal discourse in between narration and contemplation.