Radia 941: “Dead Cat Bounce” by Waste Paper Opera (for Resonance)

A live performance of improvised and reimagined music and text from the project “Dead Cat Bounce” – a collaborative performance work by Gary Zhexi Zhang and Waste Paper Opera, telling tales of time, money and the unmaking of reality in the wake of catastrophe. The original piece unfolds over five vignettes, blurring the lines between capitalism and ritual, finance and nature, belief and manifestation. The original score merges the Baroque music of Niccolò Jommelli and J.S.Bach with mimetic improvisation, choral rounds, synthpop and the textures of public speaking. “Dead Cat Bounce” takes the form of an oratorio, a medium of vocal performance used to deliver a sacred narrative.

Music by James Oldham. Text by Gary Zhexi Zhang and Klara Kofen. Violin – Chihiro Ono; drums – Cameron Graham; additional performer/band leader – James Oldham; banker/reader – Klara Kofen; banker/Namazu – Gary Zhexi Zhang; Mezzo soprano (Jeremiah) – Suzie Purkis; Baritone (Real Estate Agent of Miami) – Themba Mvula; chorus – Jacob Bolton, Keir Cooper, Gabriella Demczuk, Klara Kofen, Livvy Lynch, Themba Mvula, James Oldham, Suzie Purkis, Gary Zhexi Zhang. Thanks to Resonance Extra, Milo Thesiger-Meacham and Travis Yu.

Waste Paper Opera is an experimental music theatre collective currently based in London. Defining “Waste Paper” as any found text with the potential for recontextualisation, we write music, build structures, make costumes, and write stories using Waste Paper.