Festival of Flanders Mechelen

Lunalia, the original

Völva

LUNALIA, lunalala, lunala, lunal, luna, la lune.

Luna: as in moon, tree, moth.

Alia: as in non-normative forms of speech.

Völva (Maja Jantar in Belgium and angela rawlings in Iceland) developed Lunalia in 2012 as a way to continue their vocal improvised duets while living in different countries. At the moment the moon rises, they record a short vocal improv, then layer the recordings to see how their vocal impulses pair across geographically distant geophonies.

The name of the new city festival in Mechelen is taken from this project, so ‘the original’ had to be part of the first edition. For the inaugural Lunalia festival, Völva will reunite geographically to explore vocal ritual through watery bodies. For the moon, for the tides. For what waxes, wanes, reflects. To receive, to recur. Call and response, back and forth, ebb and flood, tide-pulled. For what re-sounds. In water, with water, of, about, and for, or… In moontime, in nighttime, at shore’s edge an echo of the edge of vocal possibility. Spewed, spawned. Water-sung. Moons, tongued.

As a prelude, festival director Jelle Dierickx will give a presentation on ‘The moon and music’, and graphic artist Emilie Lauwers will explain her views on the visualisation of Lunalia.

23.04.2018
20:15 — 21:45

Nona arts centre - old hall
Begijnenstraat 19
Mechelen