As night falls at Lost Farm Festival Italian sound artist freddie Murphy invites you on a sonic exploration into the practice of funeral laments –  a formal device used in many cultures to express and contain the emotions of grief. 

For centuries during the observances held to commemorate a loss, professional mourners' lamentations have been called upon. Their dirges are recognized by the community for their peculiar musicality, which uses breathing patterns turned into sobbing sounds, rather than just for the words they are chanting.

freddie Murphy draws us in through his performance The Night shows no Dawn with breath and sobbing – sounds that transcend language – like a modern weeper creates a modern form of lamentation, mourning the possible extinction of the human collective. In this context, mourning also becomes a potential collective act of acceptance and reflection on a future that will inevitably come. 

The sound performance is an intimate investigation on feelings of loss and acceptance connected with grief, using an approach to composition that is bound to visual imagery and concepts linked to rituality.

freddie Murphy is a sound artist and curator based in Torino, Italy. His musical practice involves experimenting with the duality of natural/synthetic, using acoustic recordings processed into synthetic sounds, as well as mimicking natural sounds using analogue tools. He has performed extensively across the world such as Venice Biennale and Santarcangelo Festival (IT), Dark Mofo Festival (Australia), Le Guess Who!? Festival (NL).

Photo: Performatorio