In 1969, George Crumb heard a tape recording of undersea sounds emitted by a humpback whale. The experience never left him, and eventually inspired one of his most enigmatic pieces of music, Vox Balanae, or, Voice of the Whale.

Performed under blue light by anonymous, masked musicians, on instruments that are amplified and modified, this is music from another dimension, an undersea world which audiences will experience on stage, together with our players.

Alongside Vox Balanae, we perform newly-commissioned music by Alex Groves, Molly Joyce’s exuberant High and Low for solo piano, electro-acoustic madness from Andrew Hamilton, and Toru Takemitsu’s magical piano trio, Between Tides.