Hamerkop is Baltimore-based Annabel Alpers (formerly of Bachelorette, she is a composer, singer and instrumentalist), composer, singer and instrumentalist, and Adam Cooke, a Baltimorean drummer and audio engineer. They are performing their new work, Remote – a live, multiple-speaker, surround-sound experience that blends field recordings, pop and minimalism.
Remote is a song-cycle that contrasts everyday life with an idealised, longed-for fantasy world, seeking catharsis through the wedding of personal texts and sonic scrapbooks to lush melodic songscapes. The chill of their synth-pop is highlighted by the sighing of the human soul concealed within it. In the spaces between these things, Hamerkop finds the spot where we all feel great joy in our shared existence.
In Alpers’ words, “My intention is to create a live sonic experience that encompasses the audience, and is as cathartic for you to listen to as it is for me to make. I'm inspired by the beauty of my remote homeland, New Zealand, which I miss so much when I'm away. I'm also inspired to find beauty in parts of everyday life – patterns and forms, mundanity, longing, excitement, nature (tamed and untamed), connections, fragility... The list is endless. An attempt to communicate this awe to you, through music.”
Book through the Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū site.
