Next Atlantis

Next Atlantis is a video/sound collaboration between composer Sebastian Currier and filmmaker Pawel Wojtasik. It premiered at Carnegie Hall on January 29th 2010 and had another performance at Philadelphia's Annenberg Center the following night, Jan 30th, 2010. American Composer's Orchestra performed the musical score both nights. In addition to the video images and live orchestra the piece utilizes a surround soundtrack of taped and electronic sounds. 

Next Atlantis is a visionary reflection on New Orleans as a site where the convergence of influences, both environmental and cultural, have the potential to define our present and anticipate our future. The piece is not specifically about Hurricane Katrina--rather it contemplates an acute sense of impermanence inherent in the New Orleans location. The work emphasizes water as the lifeblood of the city (as well as its most grave danger), and uses its fluid properties to link images and sounds.

The wetlands around the city are one of the fastest disappearing coastal areas on the planet, eroding at a rate of one football field's worth of land every 45 minutes. Next Atlantis presents this disappearing landscape, punctuated with dead and moss-covered trees, along with archival footage of efforts to build the industrial infrastructure that is now causing the environmental disaster. The city itself appears arising out of this confluence of land, water and industry. Within this shared landscape are intimate portraits of people of New Orleans. Accompanying the imagery is an all-pervading symphonic score by Sebastian Currier, with which sounds of water, whispers of city life, murmurings of Dixieland, and echoes of other musical traditions entwine. Images and sounds gradually change, evoking cycles of destruction and regeneration. These interwoven sounds and images encompass a range of themes: celebration and mourning, water and land, turbulent history and an uncertain future.

With live symphony orchestra (American Composers Orchestra) and taped and electronic soundscape.