hard COR
A Symphony of Heartache
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This performance was created specially for the fifth event of 'Talk of the Town' a platform for queer artists initiated by Shout Festival, curated and hosted by Hassan Hussain. The theme for this particular evening was 'Babs, Huns, Heartbreaks & Hot Takes'.
The piece deliberately explores the tension between discomfort and beauty, suffering and resilience, to offer an intense experience that is both unashamedly sentimental and visceral. Pushing the materiality of sound, the soundtrack juxtaposes the emotional vocals of different renditions of "Without You" (fist released in 1970 by Badfinger) with anti-AMSR sounds, noises that can be described as unpleasant, annoying or grating. |
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The title is a play on words between the English 'hardcore' and the Latin 'cor' meaning heart. The second part of the title is a deliberate nod to the 1922 classic Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror.
As a piece, hard Cor, A Symphony of Heartache is structured like a strange kind of symphony, made up of an overture and five movements:
As a piece, hard Cor, A Symphony of Heartache is structured like a strange kind of symphony, made up of an overture and five movements:
- After a reading of Stephen Crane's 1985 poem 'In the Desert', the overture samples and loops the opening piano notes of Harry Nilsson's 1971 version, which are accompanied by an incantatory repetition of the words 'love' and 'fuck'.
- Movement 1 uses the isolated vocals of Harry Nilsson's 1971 version, juxtaposing them with the sound of chairs scaping along the floor.
- Movement 2 uses the isolated vocals of Mariah Carey's 1994 version, juxtaposing them with the sound of jackhammers.
- Movement 3 uses the isolated vocals of Valentina Hassan's version, which became viral in 2008 after appearing on the pop TV contest "Bulgarian Idol". These are juxtaposed with the sound of trainers squeaking on a gym floor.
- Movement 4 uses the isolated vocals of Heart's 1978 version, juxtaposing them with the sound of a fork scratching a plate.
- Movement 5, which serves as exit music, uses a version for string quartet performed by Kelly & Co on May 29th 2010 during a practice session, which has been treated to sound as if coming through an old radio.
Images by Irina Mackie.
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