(Y)our House is fully devised work which is influenced by Georges Perec’s unusual text La vie – mode d’emploi, translated as “Life – A User’s Guide”. This large book does nothing but describe an apartment building in Paris in enormous detail. How anyone could turn that brief into interesting reading is beyond us. Perec not only succeeds; his book invites the reader to return to it again and again.

Fred Jamieson and Jos Zwaanenburg in The Music Room during a performance of (Y)our House

The piece does not deal with anything specific from the book other than the notion of, in the company’s terms, treating spaces representing one or more flats. They are not only treated as “movements” of the work, but also acting as décor, sound installation and perhaps “orchestration” at the same time. The rooms are “to be played”, not only “to be played in”. Audio: what one plays, triggers and hears from tape, and visual: the live performance including movement as well as the décor, meet in a work which is intended to be fast-moving, challenging, humorous and accessible.

Leigh Landy along with Evelyn Jamieson K. B. Sedman and Filippo Massa performing I Conduct Electricity as part of (Y)our House

(Y)our%20House%20-%20programme

The programme for (Y)our House

A (Y)our House performance during its premiere run at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival follows: