'SOMETHING SEXY... HAPPENING IN THE APOCALYPSE'

There are bits of Somatosonic's music where it feels like a weather disturbance spewing forth: with staves that boom like collapsing mountains, a pole dance stage that jars like a crack of doom, and sensors that conjure electronic scatting and symphonic static.

- artmageddon IGAN D'BAYAN

The multidisciplinary art unit — composed of Tad Ermitaño, Christina Dy (CD) and Marco Ortiga — recently had a gig at WHYNot in Karrivin Plaza, where the trio engaged in an artistic dialogue with new media artist Miggy Inumerable. Their performance wove together technology, sound, pole dance, audio-kinetic sculptures, live visuals, and a darkly brewing storm of sounds.PHILIPPINE STAR: For people new to your work, how would you describe what Somatosonic does?

TAD ERMITAÑO: We're basically the art equivalent of a band. We perform music exactly like a band does, but we make art and build our own instruments, all collaboratively. We also have totally different specialties: CD dances and draws; Marco builds kinetic sculptures; and I do noise, electronics and programming. One of the things we naturally do is explore and use new technologies in art — sensors, microcontrollers, wireless networking, and so on.

What was the concept behind your set at WHYNot?

I'm only half-joking when I said “Totality 1.0” was our stab at rethinking Wagner’s idea of the gesamtkunstwerk — literally “total-art-work.” It was an attempt at a culmination: to use everything that we know and have built into a single immersive, theatrical piece with scripted moments of tension, relaxation and climax.

Did the performance continue ideas from past shows, or was it completely new?

It definitely built on stuff we've done before. We have a set of musical pieces that we've been performing and practicing for over a year now. We added some new songs and more segments. For instance, CD’s “BoneFone” performance is a totally new thing, as was the “Plaka Reader” interlude that featured Marco on the Hinangin. Another way of putting it is that we've been developing this show for over a year.

How do you divide roles between sound, movement and objects during a performance?