OUTPUTS presents Haroon Mirza & Helga Dorothea Fannon’s 'The Ancients Call It Ataraxia (OUTPUTS Mix)’, the third single from the forthcoming ‘Sampler1’ album.

Adapting audio and visual elements from an installation, the track and accompanying video are a continuation of Mirza's ongoing ‘modular opera’ project – a malleable system of interconnected sculptural, installation and performance works – in which a tea ceremony is conducted using the active ingredient of the Amanita Muscaria mushroom. Also known as Fly Agaric, this deliriant strain of mushroom is associated with toxicity, dizziness and loss of coordination, rather than with the hallucinations of the psylocibin or magic mushroom. Its red-and-white, domed cap has a rich history and mythology, both in popular folklore associated with the poisonous toadstool that shrinks Alice in Wonderland and in its ritual usage by Saami and Siberian shamans, as a healing aid or a portal to another universe.

Combining these themes of childhood make-believe and mystic soothsaying, the work intermixes vocals by soprano Sarah-Jane Lewis, a two-channel film featuring ingestion of the tea by a group of children (the artist’s included) on the night of Winter Solstice, alongside electronic tabla drums beating out a shamanic rhythm, samples from an Icaro by Olivia Arévalo (an Amazonian shaman, brutally murdered in 2018) and a sonic vocabulary derived from the sounds of techno.

Combining these themes of childhood make-believe and mystic soothsaying, the work intermixes vocals by soprano Sarah-Jane Lewis, a two-channel film featuring ingestion of the tea by a group of children (the artist’s included) on the night of Winter Solstice, alongside electronic tabla drums beating out a shamanic rhythm and a sonic vocabulary derived from the sounds of techno.

Written by Helga Dorothea Fannon & Haroon Mirza
Featuring:
Sarah-Jane Lewis - soprano voice
Helga Dorothea Fannon - speaking voice
Mixed by Jack Jelfs

Film Credits:

Appearances from:
Blossom
Heida
Kiki
Qingqing Liu
River Cao
Une
Xiaano
Zey-Nyo Platt
Zia
Ziggy
and Mischka the dog

River Cao - drone operator
Thé0 - additional camera
Zosia Shimmell - dance coach

Charlie Fieber - audio mixing and mastering
Jack Jelfs - sound engineer
Sarah-Jane Lewis - vocals

Made possible with support from:
Rosa Barba
Ben Barwise / Clacktronics
Ellen Gibbons & Robert Sheffield
Joe Morrow
Rute Ventura
Sylvia Oakeshott Flote

© Haroon Mirza & Helga Dorothea Fannon, 2023