Limbo - The Return (Sxip Shirey)
Photo: Damien Bredberg
Circus, theatre, music & physics are three disciplines you would never expect to be linked. However, music composer Sxip Shirey shatters that expectation. Ahead of the latest production featuring Sxip's music, Limbo The Return, opening at The Grand Electric in Sydney he sat down with Pario to discuss his approach to music composition for circus & theatre performances.
Growing up in Ohio with a mathematician father Sxip always believed he was going to become a physicist. Once Sxip began down the educational path for physics he soon discovered the joy of "experimenting with sound" & life took him in an entirely different direction.
When Pario learned that Sxip had initially been heading down a physics pathway we pondered how these drastically different realms could ultimately converge. To our surprise, Sxip was quick to explain that in his eyes music & physics are not too dissimilar.
"It's all problem solving" Sxip explained with great joy & excitement. "Ultimately, what makes a good song a good song is very abstract... I think of songs as emotional equations. And of course, with physics, you're always creating equations. You're taking knowledge & you're having that knowledge communicate with more knowledge to come to an anticipated answer. For me, that's what songwriting is. You're taking this abstract cultural knowledge that you're holding in your body, you're pressing it against other things & you're implying the next thing."
Photo: Damien Bredberg
Given this thought process, Sxip approached the music composition for Limbo The Return with an overall view of how the music would interact with the performance & vice versa. Rather than simply create music in a bubble Sxip told Pario he wants the two elements to essentially become intertwined as a single inseparable piece."I want the music to act as the emotional & empathetic bridge between the viewer & the performer," Sxip said. In order to do this he says he must, "leave space in the music for the physical artist to fuse with the music, so that it's not composition AND action. It's composition WITH action."
One of a kind show
As our conversation shifted towards Limbo The Return itself the great pride & joy Sxip has for this show came through very clearly in his voice. The fact that the music for Limbo The Return will be played live inside the theatre was particularly special for Sxip.
"This is a complex show to do, but it is live fucking music!" Sxip stressed excitedly. "I love that live, tactile, real feeling. I think people forget what that is anymore because we have such a mediated experience through our phones. But when you really tap into that live feeling, I love the grit & spit of it."
From our experience witnessing Strut & Fret's last production, Blanc de Blanc Encore, at The Grand Electric this new show will be one you won’t want to miss. A sentiment that Sxip echoed.
"There's not a circus show on the planet with music as good as this show... The sexy music is actually sexy. The funny music is actually funny. The funky music is actually funky. And the beautiful music is actually beautiful."
Limbo - The Return will be playing at The Grand Electric From May 22
Tickets & Info: www.limbothereturn.com
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