SOAPBOX 2026 - SKAÉSUTÒPIC I NO
noun — Traditional Catalan double-reed woodwind instrument, similar to an oboe or shawm, typically made of wood and used in festive and folk music. The name comes from the Catalan word for “jackdaw,” referring to the instrument’s bright, raucous, birdlike sound.
As SKAÉSUTÒPIC I NO, Mireia Pellisa Martín and Bernat Pont Anglada bring to the stage their shared practice as improvisers and performers on live electronics, synthesizers, and saxophone, making it blend and collide with the gralla.
The project seeks to expand their ongoing exploration of feedback systems—both internal and external—through the use of analog and digital electronics, making these investigations interact with elements of Catalan musical tradition. By introducing the gralla, an instrument rarely heard outside folk ensembles or local ska bands, into the context of contemporary experimental performance, the aim is to challenge its cultural associations and open new sonic and performative possibilities.
Aesthetically, the project moves between noise-based atmospheres, distorted harmonic clusters, and short sections with a more rhythmic and direct energy. It draws as much from experimental and noise music as from punk and low-tech electronics. The sound can expand into long, saturated layers that test the limits of the instruments, or contract into short, reduced gestures with the immediacy of a pop fragment. Rather than building towards narrative form, the piece focuses on energy, gesture, and the physical presence of sound.
SKAÉSUTÒPIC I NO explores how noise can carry memory and how tradition can become a space for risk and playful interaction. The performance flows between moments of controlled intensity and spontaneous eruption, moving across ritualized gestures and unexpected sonic events. It invites the audience to inhabit a space where sound, gesture, and presence converge, forming a living organism that is fragile, vibrant, and unapologetically alive.