Home   What's On   News   Article

What does death sound like?

Saskia Moore's Dead Symphony
Saskia Moore's Dead Symphony

Hearing is understood to be the last sense we use moments before death.

Artist Saskia Moore has spent the past two years researching and collecting the music and sounds people heard while having a near-death experience.

Together with internationally renowned UK contemporary ensemble Apartment House, the Aussie has transcribed these ‘miniature symphonies’, creating a larger work called Dead Symphony, for voice, cello, harp, marimba, keyboards and electronics.

She said: “There’s a digital, synthetic sound, that’s how a lot of people describe it. Very beautiful, often like a choral sound but with sustained notes. Some said it was melodic, almost like chimes but not like church bells and not religious. It was a cascading pattern almost like a vibraphone duelling with itself in an endless pattern.

“One person told of ‘a hum of electricity...silenced by a crack’.”

Apartment House will perform Dead Symphony at the Turner Contemporary in Margate at 4pm and 6pm on Saturday, July 6.

At 5pm Saskia and Apartment House’s director Anton Lukoszevieze will discuss near death experiences, their collaboration and the project.

Tickets to the performance and talk are £6 or £5 for concessions. Call 01843 233000.

Close This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse the site you are agreeing to our use of cookies.Learn More