CATHAL ROCHE . Saxophone Stories

Saxophonist and Sound Artist

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Cage of Change (2009 - present)

I CHING improvisations

Drawing from the 64 hexagrams of the 3000 year old ancient chinese text the 'I CHING', Roche creates new extended circular-breathing performances in this broad and evolving performance practice.  

Each performance can last between 20 mins and several hours and can be staged to a specific sites on request. Audience members are invited to sit in meditative listening and are free to arrive and depart at will for the duration of the performance.  The performance takes place indoors/outdoors on a 64-tile floor installation representing the hexagrams of the text.  Each tile of the board contains one hexagram image with title. The work premiered at the Dock Arts Centre, Carrick-on-Shannon, Co. Leitrim in December 2009 as part of the TRADE Visual Arts Semina and has has since been adapted for a variety of performances, purposes and recordings including a 40min chamber work for baritone and soprano saxophones and string quartet in collaboration with BBC Radio 3, the Vanbrugh String Quartet and Ian Wilson, (audio below), as a piano-saxophone duet performance with pianist Izumi Kimura, and has served as a drawing aid for an intuitive drawing collective at The Dock, Carrick-on-Shannon.