The Queer science-fiction concept album and live listening event “Seven Songs of Yearning for a New World Sung by a Starship” imagines a starship hurtling through interstellar space carrying a cargo of Queer refugees setting out on a one-way journey in search of a new home far from this world. The ship sings seven songs of desire and yearning into the void. Powered on desire alone, the ship searches for a suitable world to fall in love with, the strength of its passion pulling it ever forward. The ship’s songs bring together the hopes and fears of the journeyers. Lyrics and melodies echo dreams of a world where our desire dignifies us rather than leaving us vulnerable, excluded or ashamed.
Forming part of ONCE WE WERE ISLANDS long-term constellation artwork “Future Magic”(2026-27), “Seven Songs of Yearning” will be a relaxed and tender listening experience, in which we share the soft underbelly of our hopes and fears with the Queer community. We hope to send our own “Seven Songs of Yearning” up into the sky as an act of practical magic to reach out towards a better world.
“Seven Songs of Yearning” will bring together my newly composed music with original texts in the Damiá language by ONCE WE WERE ISLANDS.
Damiá is the Queer language created by Aslan of ONCE WE WERE ISLANDS. They began creating it when they were just 13 years old and it represents a lifelong passion. It is a fully-functioning language with an extensive grammar and a vocabulary of around 10,000 words. Damiá has only ever been spoken by Queer people.
Composed for modulated-voice, bass guitar and electronics, each of the seven songs will be based on a distinct modal scale created for Damiá in an attempt to create a new “folk” music tradition for the language. Consisting of five pentatonic and two tetratonic scales, each has its own distinctive progression of intervals and chords evoking a particular range of emotions.
About the artist
Ruby Louise Rose is an artist who works with text, sound and performance. As a working-class autodidact and recently out trans woman, my work is an exploration of process, transformation and hidden truths. Often humorous and playful, it uses rhythm, repetition and extremes of duration to tackle ideas around desire, compassion and communication.
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Nordic Culture Point strives to organise accessible events where everyone can equally participate. In the following link, you will find information about the accessibility of our facilities. Please inform us in advance if you have any specific accessibility requirements. We will do our best to accommodate them.
