13 Apr 2019

Sound Lounge: Flo Wilson featurette

From Sound Lounge, 9:30 pm on 13 April 2019

Flo Wilson’s installation ‘Prelude to a Requiem’ uses sound and video projection to illustrate the liminal headspace that a person enters when he or she prepares to grieve. The immersive installation slowly builds up into an ambient embrace, and asks how different technologies extend or reduce our modes of being when we grieve.

Flo admits she is "feeling very weird about the timing of a show about grief, given the terrorist attacks." But the premiere installation is well worth experiencing at the Audio Foundation in Auckland through to 27 April 2019.

For those who can't make it, here's some more music by Flo.

Flo Wilson

Flo Wilson Photo: Supplied

Flo Wilson is an Auckland-based composer, performer and artist whose whose organic, experimental music creates emotive atmospheres to facilitate shared listening experiences. Her interests span computer music, embodied performance, spatial design and immersive installations. In particular she’s curious about the relationships between people and technology.

In 2017 she released her debut EP (Please) Keep Breathing'. About the title track, she says:

"'(Please) Keep Breathing' is a piece which was written with the intention of exploring the relationship between the human body and modern mechanics. It sought to blur the lines of where the body left off and the machine began. As the writing progressed, it started to become a response to hearing my partner choke in their sleep without waking. It's about that quiet process of checking your phone is charged, you know where the emergency medicine is in case of an emergency. It's the half-awake state you enter when you're on high alert if someone you love is not safe."

Every year at the Silver Scrolls, the SOUNZ Contemporary Award-winning work is always covered and performed by another artist at the awards ceremony. In 2018 Flo Wilson re-imagined Michael Norris's Sygyt (originally for throat singer and ensemble) as a sound and video installation.

This is Flo's reinterpretation, featuring Al Fraser on taonga pūoro, recorded by RNZ.

Flo Wilson used to release music under the pseudonym Foxtrot.

"Foxtrot was my first ever music project and I was so lucky to play where I did and that people wanted to listen! But in a time where ‘female vocals’ were a tokenisation of women’s work in electronic music, Foxtrot was also my way of taking production into my own hands and showing myself that superficial gendered labels weren’t gonna work. Foxtrot wasn’t perfect, but it was the most important process for me. So for anyone doubting themselves today, it doesn’t matter when you start, it matters that you start! Don’t be afraid to share your voice with everyone else, we’re stoked you’re part of the community."

Here's Flo performing live as Foxtrot at the RadioActive Studios in Wellington.

For a preview of Flo's installation 'Prelude to a Requiem' check out her Facebook page.