FringeReview Scotland 2023
Full Ashram Resonant Module [F.A.R.M]
SUZI & LEWIS OF FREE LOVE AND K.YALO
Genre: Live Art, Live Music, Music, Visual Art
Venue: Platform, Easterhouse
Festival: FringeReview Scotland
Low Down
With one VJ and two musical artists, we are treated to a visual and audio experience in the main auditorium. Within it Lewis and Suzi of Free Love master the musical, which k.yalo has his hands firmly upon the visual. Visuals are live, and projected at either end as the soundscape meanders and mellifluously weaves its way through our ears and amongst our relaxed presence. This was a work in progress so the results of this sharing should help develop its next iteration.
Review
Before I went in to see Full Ashram Resonant Module [F.A.R.M], I met one of the locals who was an authentic community participant. Having spent 13 years living, “just around the corner” and being involved in so many of the activities at The Platform, she was enthused enough to be a PR dream. Why? Because she oozed authenticity. She a here to see the familiar which was a springboard to the new.
Once I had taken my seat in our communal darkened room, she was a few seats along from me and her reaction to what was a very cutting edge style of performance informed my own response to F.A.R.M.
This was a collaboration between music artists and a VJ, and to be honest I went in with a healthy level of skepticism as it was never going to be something I would slip on in the car to take me from one destination to another – was that the limit of my experience with music – background noise to my life? Did I not have any other reference points emotionally? With an opening that brought thoughts of Samuel Beckett’s Breath this was, a few minutes in, what I had dreaded.
And then something happened. As to the rhythm of the piece and the musicality, I can offer little, but as a theatrical experience, with mats on the floor inviting us to sit or lie down, I became transfixed. I wanted to shut my eyes and feel the atmosphere but then became aware that would mean I missed the visuals. Concentrating on one set of visuals I realized I might miss the others and then switched and felt the same in reverse. I realized I was now won over.
Around me were people who clearly had a greater connection to the experience than I but all were equally concentrating on what was happening between us. The soundscape inhabited the room like a melodious velvet. There was little by way of massive discordance but much by way of recognizable elements aided by the flute and the bells played by Suzi.
As well as the woman I met on the way in, there was one man brought in who clearly felt the environment as one at the start where he was comfortable and spoke of his need to visit the facilities. There was a couple or three children who got up halfway through and wandered. Their parents, keeping a watchful eye but their experience was mesmerizing as their play interweaved with the experience. It was the interactions as we were communally together that was its greatest value. It was this connection between the community within the locality and the community of artists that was most impressive. When I met the artists the word symbiosis was used and here it made for creative evidence.
I would have liked more cameras and opportunities for k.yalo to play and whilst at one point I did wonder if the TARDIS was about to appear my frivolity was a key to my comfort. I left thinking about the whole thing and that was the point, I feel and the true value of everyone getting together – wonder if it will ever catch on…
