City Deep is a collaboration between musician and composer Clare Loveday and visual artist Nandipha Mntambo that explores sound, architecture, and movement in Johannesburg city. The performance debuted at The Centre for the Less Good Idea in August 2018 as part of the For Once programme.

How does the brick-and-mortar make-up of a city influence those who move through it? What do the far-flung mine dumps and the endless stretches of concrete contribute to the way we engage with the city, sonically and otherwise? Performed by saxophonist Naomi Sullivan and clarinettist Luke Newby, and with video by Mntambo, City Deep explores architecture as a metaphor for the people of Johannesburg, considering how buildings and soundscapes shape and are shaped by the movement of people in this fast-changing city.

The 15-minute performance is uncomplicated in its presentation. Sullivan and Newby are on stage with nothing but their instruments and sheet music. On the walls behind and beside them, projections of Mntambo’s video fragments appear. The two work together – live music and visuals – to sound out the activity of Johannesburg and its surrounds. The music is abstract and affecting, sometimes a playful call-and-response between the two musicians, other times a collaborative endeavour with the scrolling cityscape we see on the walls.

The visuals are rendered in black and white. They show the buildings, the people, the activity of the moving city. We move from mine dumps and rubble to endless stretches of tarmac and concrete. Sullivan and Newby’s soundscape swells and flows, the pitter-patter sounds of the breath, the metallic groans of buildings fortifying themselves against the wind.

City Deep is the result of a small, dedicated team of curious and artistic minds, and it is a sharp and experimental exercise in sounding a city that’s in a constant state of flux – from the restless streets of the inner city, to the dry, bristling landscapes of the veld.

– David Mann

CREDITS:

MUSICIANS | Noami Sullivan & Luke Newby
COMPOSER | Clare Loveday
CINEMATOGRAPHER | Nandipha Mntambo
FILM EDITOR | Melissa Parry
ARCHITECTURAL ADVISOR | Thiresh Govender
CINEMATOGRAPHER | Kutlwano Makgalemele
EDITOR | Noah Cohen
PROJECT MANAGER | Shruthi Nair
STAGE MANAGER | Hayleigh Evans & POPArt Productions