Radio Papesse

A live performance of improvised and reimagined music and text from the project Dead Cat Bounce - a collaborative performance work by Gary Zhexi Zhang and Waste Paper Opera, telling tales of time, money and the unmaking of reality in the wake of catastrophe. The original piece unfolds over five vignettes, blurring the lines between capitalism and ritual, finance and nature, belief and manifestation.

The original score merges the Baroque music of Niccolò Jommelli and J.S.Bach with mimetic improvisation, choral rounds, synthpop and the textures of public speaking. Dead Cat Bounce takes the form of an oratorio, a medium of vocal performance used to deliver a sacred narrative.

Music by James Oldham.
Text by Gary Zhexi Zhang and Klara Kofen
Violin – Chihiro Ono
Drums – Cameron Graham
Additional performer/band leader – James Oldham;

Banker/reader – Klara Kofen
banker/Namazu – Gary Zhexi Zhang
Mezzo soprano (Jeremiah) – Suzie Purkis
Baritone (Real Estate Agent of Miami) – Themba Mvula

Chorus – Jacob Bolton, Keir Cooper, Gabriella Demczuk, Klara Kofen, Livvy Lynch, Themba Mvula, James Oldham, Suzie Purkis, Gary Zhexi Zhang. Thanks to Resonance Extra, Milo Thesiger-Meacham and Travis Yu.
 

Waste Paper Opera is an experimental music theatre collective currently based in London. Defining Waste Paper as any found text with the potential for recontextualisation, they write music, build structures, make costumes, and write stories using Waste Paper.