• recordings
  • performing
    • The Echoes Project 2017/2018
    • Fine Blue Thread Trio
    • Opal Vapour
  • teaching
  • Embodied rhythm workshops
  • contact
RIA SOEMARDJO
  • recordings
  • performing
    • The Echoes Project 2017/2018
    • Fine Blue Thread Trio
    • Opal Vapour
  • teaching
  • Embodied rhythm workshops
  • contact
RIA SOEMARDJO
OF FROGS - 2022 
AUDIENCE REVIEWS
“A stunning show – immersive, informed, humourous, intricate, and exceptional.“
“Wish I could take the show home to listen to again and again.“
“I didn’t want it to end.“ 
‘Of Frogs’ is a new performance work, inspired by frogs and our waterways, a performance ritual of voice, percussion & shadow play interacting with water. 
A mesmerising performance springing from percussion, voice and shadow play, invoking the life cycle of frogs, forgotten waterways and lost springs. Featuring haunting  ceramic flutes and drums created by Ria.
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Sandra Fiona Long & Ria Soemardjo with Jeremy Dullard & Ron Reeves
​Presented by Darebin Arts Speakeasy and KP Productions

​Of Frogs was first seeded through Speak Percussion’s SD Lab 2021.
​It was developed and presented in 2022 with support from 
Darebin Arts Speakeasy
Of Frogs Creative Development - Northcote Townhall 2021

​‘Of Frogs’ is inspired by music-based performance form of Javanese Wayang Kulit (shadow play) – which strongly informs Soemardjo’s practice – drawing on a lifelong fascination with & study of this dynamic artform & its music. Bringing this influence to the unique form of music based performance Soemardjo & Long have been building across several projects, utilising voice & extended vocal techniques with percussion, libretto, water, objects & light, is seeding an exciting & innovative performance work. ‘Of Frogs’ aims to acknowledge declining frog numbers & forgotten water ways existing underground in pipes, while creating an auditory & visual invitation into the hidden world of water through a contemporary ritual invoking restoration.
Three performers weave an aural and visual journey through a landscape of water and shadow, conjuring unseen worlds with sublime vocals and soaring soundscapes. Drawing on the interlocking rhythms of gamelan, bending pitch and time with water, OF FROGS is a contemporary ritual of human connection and disruption to nature.

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