Sarabande en Temps de Crise (Sarabande in Times of Crisis) unfolds as a cross-disciplinary experience combining choral performance, installation and theatrical staging. Developed as an extension of the project Mécaniques Discursives, this new work brings to a head a line of research initiated in 2019 by Fred Penelle and Yannick Jacquet. It continues their ongoing exploration of hybrid temporalities, weaving together references from distant eras, from medieval festivities to speculative futures.

Both monumental and immersive, the piece invites audiences into a ghostly ball populated by chimeras, celestial figures, dancing skeletons and headless birds. By colliding symbols and timelines, Sarabande in Times of Crisis creates a space where past and future overlap, where folklore meets meets science fiction. The result is a layered sensory experience, balancing irony with a more unsettling, darker edge.

A solemn and introspective repertoire.

Music forms a central axis of the piece, shaping a soundscape where early sacred compositions meet contemporary writing. The repertoire, ranging from Hildegard von Bingen to Johan Duijck, unfolds through choral voices, simple ascending harmonies and monophonic textures, interwoven with more minimal and atmospheric sonic layers.

Blending meditative stillness with subtle tension, the composition navigates between the sacred and the contemporary. Voices resonate within a spatial sound design, creating an immersive environment that is both intimate and transcendent — a suspended space where ritual, contemplation and sonic matter converge.