Piano: Gabriella Smart
Music: Constantine Koukias
Sound & Speaker Design: Willem van Erven Dorens
Lighting & Laser Design: Jason James

The score has been commissioned by DARKLab (Museum of Old & New Art), Hon. Christopher Schacht, and SOUNDSTREAM with the assistance of Creative Australia.

VAST features an ensemble of instruments including Solo Piano, Organ, Soprano, Mezzo-Soprano, Tenor, Trumpet, Cor Anglais, Violin and 21 pre-recorded voices, accompanied by electronic and lighting components relayed through a specifically designed 8-speaker system.

VAST delves into the enigmatic realm of Dark Energy, a concept unveiled in 1998 by international teams of astronomers, notably Adam Riess, Saul Perlmutter, and Brian Schmidt. It unveils the universe’s acceleration, attributed to Dark Energy constituting approximately 68% of cosmic matter, with dark matter accounting for 27% and ordinary matter composing a mere 5%.

VAST materializes as an artistic embodiment of this mystique and profound intangible energy, encapsulating the unknown and the collective apprehensions it invokes. A central enigma revolves around the late emergence of Dark Energy’s dominance in universal expansion, paralleling Einstein’s cosmological constant. Despite adhering to Einstein’s anti-gravity dynamics, Dark Energy’s origin and character remain elusive.

The composition harnesses an 8-channel speaker system, enabling electronic experimentation that generates the distinct sonic universe of VAST. Through VAST, electronic spatialization evolves into a vehicle that blurs live and electronic resonance throughout the entire concert space. It engages the equilibrium between live instruments, recorded voices, and strategically positioned onstage speakers, pushing the frontiers of conventional musical experience.