Archive Material : Uncuckoo Soundtrack
‘Uncuckoo’ was a series of scratch pieces by the performance art company ‘The Rainbow Collectors’ There were three incarnations of the piece which involved puppetry, physical theatre, live music and dance, performed at Battersea Arts Center, ICA and Camden Roundhouse.
The pieces were the result of intense workshopping. Borrowing heavily from the Butoh dance discipline, the workshops involved exercises in forgetting one’s physical habits and attributes.
Each version of the piece took a different approach to it’s development and highlighted the collective nature of the company with different artists and performers working with the group at different times.
The soundtracks I composed for the performances also varied considerably. The first piece was performed solo on electric guitar and am radio. The second featured a custom built bowed cello like intstrument and percusive gongs built from scrap metal along with a violin accompanyment. The third and final piece was a huge change of direction. Adopting a slapstick, pythonesque comedy aesthetic, the soundtrack was entirely built of samples and sound effects that were triggered from the sound desk.
This recording is a studio version of the first incarnation’s soundtrack that was performed live at Battersea Arts Centre in 2011
You can check out the Rainbow Collectors current activities on their facebook page HERE
studio barking dog 