The Body Electric

After 25 weeks of ongoing struggle in Hong Kong, with neither an ending nor a resolution in sight, we can only feel confusion and exhaustion when faced with the opacity, complexity, and contradiction of our times. As we collectively work through both past and present traumas, we need space for reflection and a healthy mind/body in order to imagine the way forward. It is with this perhaps naive wish to create a space for emotional and psychic healing that we asked Hong Kong artist and musician Xper.Xr. to organize The Body Electric. 

An extraordinary measure which will attempt to fuse plasma energy with specific sound frequencies, The Body Electric draws on a robust history of sound healing in alternative medicine — developed by such cult figures as Dr. Joseph Puleo, Dr. Raymond Rife, and Dr. Nogier —  in order to address Hong Kong’s ongoing political and existential crisis. Within these intersecting paradigms, the sympathetic vibration of cellular matter caused by specific audible (and inaudible) frequencies is thought to have therapeutic effects ranging from the destruction of intractable diseases to the calming of mental distress — healing trauma on both the physical and mental planes. Drawing upon his own experience treating the human body as a practitioner of alternative medicine, Xper.Xr. now attempts to cure the body politic through the transmission of a set of purposely composed healing frequencies addressing the current state of affairs and the wellbeing of We the people. 

Six powerful Rife Plasma tubes installed in the gallery will transmit this composition as both sound and light using what is known as the M.O.R. (mortal oscillatory rate). Simultaneously, these frequencies will be made visually available to the audience through a waveform monitor and the use of Cymatic techniques. Within this setting, Die Angel (Ilpo Väisänen and Dirk Dresselhaus) will perform an electroacoustic concert using this set of frequencies as structural base materials for their music. The 6 original Solfeggio frequencies will be broadcasted on the 30th November – specifically selected, from “undoing situations” to “promote the returning of order”. The 7 special frequencies researched and developed by Dr Nogier, the father of Auriculotherapy, will be transmitted and combined into the show on the 1st of December, dealing with the physical elements of the human body through to the promotion of creativity and imagination, arriving at the universal frequency of 1.14 Hz. Occasional interludes will be provided by Hong Kong-based brass quintet Fiesta Brass who will be re-interpreting electro-pop classics in new arrangements. 

Both evenings will begin with a talk (6:30 PM, 18th Floor) by Xper.Xr. on the history and practice of sound science as it relates to healing – addressing such topics as frequency, vibration, and numerological signification.  This will be followed by a performance and refreshments on our 19th floor. Please join us for two evenings where the merging of fringe science and electroacoustic music breaks new ground! 

Empty Gallery and the artists would like to extend our sincere gratitude to Martin Rymeš and Mariusz Bichajło at Rifetech (www.rifetech.eu) for supporting this event with their Sanoplasma device.

Xper.Xr. (born 1970) is a Hong Kong-based artist, performer, and provocateur belonging to the city’s first generation of experimental musicians. After releasing Murmur (1989), arguably the first industrial noise recording in the territory, he went on to release and perform alongside such names as Otomo Yoshihide, Merzbow and Whitehouse. Characterized by a constitutional irreverence, deliberate courting of failure, and self-effacing aesthetic, Xper.Xr.’s practice represents a crucial moment of the city’s artistic counter-history. From 2012 to 2015, he ran the seminal underground exhibition and performance venue CIA in Kowloon, organizing shows with like-minded artists Kago Shintaro, Vagina Dentata Organ, New Noveta, Hermann Nitsch, Laibach and Olivier de Sagazan. 

Die Angel (formerly known as Angel) is an experimental music duo consisting of Ilpo Väisänen (Pan sonic, I-LP-O IN DUB) and Dirk Dresselhaus (Schneider TM, A S S, Locust Fudge) who play time-transcending freeform sound, exploring the weightlessness and gravity of electromagnetic signals together since 1999. Sometimes they collaborate with other freeform musicians like BJ Nilsen, Hildur Gudnadottir, Lucio Capece, Werner ’Zappi’ Diermaier or Oren Ambarchi as well as with the Japanese dancer Tomoko Nakasato.

Fiesta Brass is a Hong Kong-based brass quintet composed of five outstanding young local musicians: Oscar Lam Wai Hang (Trumpet), Jimmy Fu Chi Fung (Trumpet), Cheng Kai Ming (Trombone), Gary Chong Yik Hay (Tuba) and Ryan Lam Chek Wai (Horn). The group was formed in 2017 and is the second ensemble established by Premiere Performances after the successful launch of the Viva! Pipers Woodwind Quintet in 2014. Fiesta Brass Quintet gave a pilot tour in early 2018 that reached 6,000 students in 20 performances and will start their first official school tour in Spring 2019.