Zubin Kanga performs the London premiere of Answer Machine Tape, 1987, a major work for piano and multimedia by Philip Venables, created in collaboration with dramatist Ted Huffman. It focuses on visual artist David Wojnarowicz, whose answering machine tape becomes a window onto the 1980s New York art scene, its queer community, and the devastating effects of the AIDS crisis.

Answer Machine Tape, 1987 focuses on New York visual artist and AIDS activist David Wojnarowicz and the turbulent period leading up to the death of Peter Hujar – his former lover, close friend and fellow artist – from an AIDS-related illness in 1987. The work’s focal point is Wojnarowicz’s answering machine tape, featuring calls from Hujar, other artists, friends and lovers, to explore not just his life, but that period of the New York art scene, queer history and the AIDS crisis.

As part of Zubin Kanga’s Cyborg Soloists research project, the work uses new sensor technology – the Keyscanner created by the Augmented Instruments Laboratory – allowing the piano to function as a typewriter to transcribe, comment on and illuminate the messages. In Answer Machine Tape, 1987, the audience eavesdrops into a private world, messages are transliterated into a musical fabric, become character studies, become reflections on a community, become attempts to decipher meaning. Transcription, and its failure in the face of extreme difficulty, becomes a poignant metaphor for the AIDS crisis and its devastating effect on a generation.

Answer Machine Tape, 1987 was composed by Philip Venables in collaboration with dramatist Ted Huffman and programmer Simon Hendry.

Answer Machine Tape, 1987 was commissioned by Zubin Kanga as part of Cyborg Soloists, with the support of a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship, Royal Holloway, University of London and The Marchus Trust; Time of Music (Finland) November Music (Netherlands) and Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival (UK) with the support of Sounds Now and Creative Europe; and Festival d’Automne à Paris (France).

Age restriction: this event is suitable for ages 16+

This event will last approximately 45-60 minutes, without an interval.

About Zubin Kanga

Zubin Kanga is a pianist, composer, and technologist. For over a decade, he has been at the forefront of creating, co-creating and performing interdisciplinary music that seeks to explore and redefine what it means to be a performer through interactions with new technologies.

Since 2021, he has been the Director and Research Lead of Cyborg Soloists, a major music technology research project, supported by a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship and Royal Holloway, University of London. Cyborg Soloists is unlocking new possibilities in composition and performance through interactions with AI and machine learning, interactive visuals, motion and biosensors, and new hybrid instruments.

Zubin has premiered more than 160 works and performed at many international festivals including hcmf// (UK), Paris Autumn Festival (France), Hamburg International Music Festival (Germany), Gaudeamus Festival (Netherlands), Transit Festival (Belgium) and Modulus Festival (Canada).

About Zubin Kanga Philip Venables

The work of Philip Venables — “a composer of ferocious dramatic instincts” (The New Yorker) — is all about storytelling.  His previous stage works, 4.48 Psychosis, Denis & Katya, The Faggots and their Friends Between Revolutions and We Are The Lucky Ones have been performed by leading companies across Europe, the UK and the USA, and received the Fedora Prize, an RPS Award, and an Ivor Novello Award, and shortlisted nominations for the Olivier Awards and South Bank Awards. He is described as ‘one of the finest composers around’ (Guardian) and ‘pushing the boundaries of opera’ (New York Times) and his work as ‘a new brand of opera’ (Times) and ‘music of forensic clarity and visceral force’ (BBC Music Magazine).