Heddon Greta-based performance poetry electro duo Casio Gloria will perform at the world's largest festival of light, music and ideas, Vivid Sydney.
The duo, featuring Jenna Blayden and her husband Dapr, will perform at Failure:Lab, an international symposium on the highs and lows of creativity that will debut in Australia for Vivid Ideas 2016.
Jenna started Casio Gloria as a solo act at a uni cabaret night in 2007, and was joined by Dapr in 2010.
Dapr has designed bespoke software called MusicFox for their projects, with the newest version to be released at Failure:Lab.
Casio Gloria has what Jenna calls a “skeleton of music and poetry” that adapts with the audience and mood.
“It’s an ephemeral performance, each one is unique,” she said.
“It vanishes, you’re immersed in it and then it’s gone – like cells dying, like a breath, it’s gone.”
The couple might occasionally work on beats around the kitchen table, but it’s rare to jam out a whole set, Jenna said.
“Part of it’s formulated internally, then it will all come together on the night,” she said.
“It’s random and spontaneous, like a volcano.”
Jenna works as a theatre technician at Cessnock Performing Arts Centre, where she was the ‘Fiddler on The Roof’ at the 2015 season launch.
Locals may also recognise her from the Cessnock Stomp Festival promos – she will be the Mad Hatter at the high tea as part of the festival on April 17.
She will be getting into the “elevated manic mode” as the Mad Hatter before gearing up for Casio Gloria’s performance at Vivid Sydney.
Jenna has seen some of her heroes, including Laurie Anderson and Lou Reed, at Vivid Sydney over the years, and another – the Icelandic avant-garde artist Björk – features on this year’s line-up.
“Playing at the same festival as Björk, I can’t believe that,” she said.
Failure:Lab will take place at the Giant Dwarf Theatre in Redfern on May 28. Tickets are available through Moshtix.
Vivid Sydney will run from May 27 to June 18.
