Anicca is a percussion duo created by Matthias Schack-Arnott that aurally and kinetically explores cycles, orbits and the perception of time. Hypnotic and dreamlike, Anicca features a variable-speed rotating instrument created with engineer Richard Allen, augmented by a rotational lighting system and multi-channel audio.
Anicca – meaning ‘impermanence’ – is inspired by the relationship between the cyclic and the transcendental in Hindu and Buddhist thought. Through interlocking musical gestures, performers Schack-Arnott and Eugene Ughetti play the instrument’s spinning, textured surface, creating timbral cannons, mechanical phasing effects and microtonal pitch cycles. The result is a shimmering reflection on impermanence, recurrence and perpetual motion.
Director, Composer, Performer: Matthias Schack-Arnott
Performer: Eugene Ughetti
Creative Engineering: Richard Allen
Video System: Pete Brundle & James Sandri (PDA)
Production Manager and Lighting: Richard Dinnen (Megafun)
Artist Interns: Jonathan Griffiths and Hamish Upton
Producer: Michaela Coventry
Videography, Edit: Cobie Orger
Premiere season: Arts House ‘Season 2’ 2016