Phantom Opera
An invited work presented as part of Hopes and Fears Assembly
Created and produced by Rythm Corp
Phantom Opera is an immersive audiovisual performance by Toronto-based multidisciplinary collective Rythm Corp that transforms the sounds, voices and traces of an event into material for a new live composition.
For its presentation within Hopes and Fears Assembly, members of Rythm Corp moved through the event with field recorders, collecting fragments of the evening as it unfolded: conversations, crowd noise, sounds from the different installations and performances, and the ambient life of the space itself.
Rather than disappearing once they had happened, these sounds became an archive of the night — fragments of an event that could be gathered, reshaped and heard again.
Later in the evening, the recordings were brought together in a live experimental jam. Sounds captured only hours or minutes earlier were layered, manipulated and combined with live musical elements, turning the event back on itself and creating a kind of sonic ghost of what had already taken place.
Audience members could also add their own voices through a dedicated microphone, becoming part of the evolving composition rather than remaining outside it.
Real-time visuals accompanied the sound. For the Hopes and Fears Assembly presentation, these included hopes and fears contributed by participants throughout the evening, transforming another element of the larger event into material for the performance.
Phantom Opera plays with the strange relationship between a live event and its memory. Something happens, disappears and is immediately transformed into something else. Voices become texture. Conversations become rhythm. An evening becomes source material for its own echo.
The work moves between concert, installation, improvisation and collective experiment, blurring the boundaries between audience and performer, documentation and creation, and the event itself and the traces it leaves behind.
The experience
Listen — sounds from the surrounding event are gathered throughout the evening.
Contribute — audience members can add their own voices through the microphone.
Transform — recordings, live sound and musical elements are mixed and manipulated in real time.
Watch — live visuals respond to and accompany the evolving soundscape.
Hear the event again — fragments of something that has already happened return in altered form as part of a new performance.
Selected Presentation History
October 5, 2024 — Nuit Blanche, Harbourfront Centre, Toronto
Presented by STO Union as an invited work within Hopes and Fears Assembly.
RYTHM CORP Participating Member Bios:
AJ: Atharva Jadhav is a dynamic and innovative digital artist and technologist with a degree in Digital Futures from OCAD University. His artistic style is experimental and exploratory, using digital algorithms and Illustrations to create fantastical art. He has written and directed award-winning short films, exhibited artwork at New York Fashion Week and Toronto’s Collision Gallery, and created real-time visuals for events. A certified PADI rescue diver, Atharva is also passionate about marine life. He continues to push boundaries in digital art, promising an exciting future.
Watchyourtemper: watchyourtemper is a moniker of Toronto software engineer and musician Achu Mukundan. The project fuses ethereal ambient auras, deconstructed club textures, and trap rhythms to transport you to a world of raw expression. Melancholic moments reach out to you offering solace, all the while visceral bursts of rage barrage you with shards of sound as sharp as glass.
Huang SiFu: Huang SiFu is the vocalist of Chin Metal, a band that fuses the rebellious energy of Heavy and Black Metal with the rich cultural depth of Beijing opera. Passionate about vocal experimentation, I love creating weird alien texture sounds, adding a unique dimension.
Luis: Luis is one of the best electric guitarists in Toronto. Numi: Architect of numinous things, Numi offers alternative perspectives to ordinary experiences.
Arun: Arun is a multidisciplinary creative with a background in audio/visual media. He is currently focused on finding innovative and accessible ways of creating experiences centered around music and visuals.
Credits
Created and produced by Rythm Corp
Presented by STO Union as part of Hopes and Fears Assembly
Photos and video
Photos by Rythm Corp, David Irvine (for STO Union) and Nila Varzhevska (for Harbourfront)
Video by Nadia Ross
Rythm Corp
Rhythm Corp is a Toronto-based multidisciplinary collective creating accessible sonic experiences through new visual and sonic media. Our talented team of DJs, producers, vocalists, instrumentalists, new media artists, filmmakers, and digital artists come together to craft immersive and experimental experiences. We’re pushing the boundaries of techno-organic symbiosis, exploring new ways to experience art. Join us as we shape the future of artistic expression.”
youtube @rythmcorp