Tunsā I |‍ ‍fixed media 

(2026) – 10’ 

Sina M Fard and Conor Abbott Brown

We developed Tunsā I collaboratively in the Sonology Voltage Control Studio by dwelling with, responding to, and then splintering our responses to a recording of Mahmoud Darwish reading his poem "تُنْسى، كأنك لم تكن" (“You’ll Be Forgotten, As If You Never Were”). Our process was informed by the following passage from the poem:  

فالمفرداتُ 

تسُوسُني وأسُوسُها. أنا شكلها 

وهي التجلِّي الحُرُّ. 

Vocabulary  

governs me and I govern it. I am its shape 

and it is the free transfiguration. 

Translation by Fady Joudah

We counter-transfigured the crystalline contour of the poem's vocabulary into unpronounceable, primordial shapes. The piece teeters: in one direction, a sinking fear of having arrived too late into a tragic narrative to change it, and in the other, a hope that future generations will be privileged to forget the vocabularies of exile and dehumanization. 

Selections of Conor Abbott Brown’s orchestration of the Hereditary film score for live orchestra will be performed.

Conor Abbott Brown contracted the all-star cast of musicians who will make up the Wordless Music Orchestra for this concert.