Fantasy, 2025 ~ by Bel McLaughlin

Bel McLaughlin's "Fantasy, 2025" was presented before live audience at Centrale Fies, Dro, Italy on August 8, 2025 as one of 24 acts, (curated by Elisa Giuliani) at the occasion of the AEROPONIC ACTS 2025: CHOREIA (convened by Gabriëlle Schleijpen).

Here you will find an introduction by the presenter, video-documentation filmed by Baha Görkem Yalım and a written report by Grant Watson.The report includes a summary of the spoken, improvised comments by esteemed guest respondents Barby Asante, Sandi Hilal, and Zairong Xiang.

Fantasy, 2025 

Bel's question: How do fantasies mobilize?

Bel's intro:

A sonic play with reality and fantasy. Voice, breath and instrumentation interweave. Baroque Sonatas and Musical Theater Ballads become the structural base for new compositions. Mathematics, repetition, and precision intermingle with emotive, dramatic, melodies.  

A flutist breathes and speaks: an attempt to transport the listener to their fantasies; to hear what they cannot see. To feel what they cannot know. They play with the distance, acoustics of space, the shape of words, amplication, and the body. Their status and character shrinks and grows in scale. They use fabric and the surrounding environment to hide and expose, to perform and accompany what is already there.

Grant's report: 

The performance takes place in a large light space. The artist stands on steps at the back to one side slightly behind the audience holding an electric flute. They wear grey shorts and a cropped top and have visible tattoos. They begin to play the instrument but no sound comes out apart from a clacking of keypads, although these produce a tune, which it is possible to make out and to hear how it repeats. The sound from a speaker has the same rhythm as the tune coming from the flute, only delayed and overlayed like a medley. There is the sound of a train, which reverberates then slows to a series of  percussive beats. The artist moves to a position in front of the audience the flute connected to an amp by a long lead. This allows the artist to walk about the space to the noise of static, which it appears is produced by the artist’s movements. The artist stands in front of a window and behind there is a view of the mountain. They play a series of long upward curving notes. Then a refrain of quickly repeated notes, then a warbling sound, then a percussive sound, then a sound like the whistle of a train. The artists exits through an opening at the back of the room and thinking the piece has ended the audience applaud. The artist, looking through a hole in the back wall wags a finger at the audience as if to say: no, and performs a snatch of classical music. The artist remerges from the back, stands for applause, then indicates wait! They plays some final notes with their back turned and then leave the stage.

Barby Asante thanks the artist and says that their performance was really something. She says that it put her in mind of a friend who played the flute and the physical relationship this friend had with that instrument. She was surprised by the different sounds that were produced, and how the performance pushed what the instrument could do, that she loved hearing the breath and watching the movements of the mouth, and how these things explored a relationship between performer and instrument. Barby asks if the piece was improvised, if it is a piece that the artist would like to take forward, and how they would position it in relation to experimental music projects?

Zairong Xiang found this an exciting work. He loved how it utilised the sound system, amplifying the conditions for the possibility of sound. That it arrived as a classical piece after we were reminded of rhythm, clapping, things that are hidden in the classical repertoire, where the turning of the page is considered a problem. Through the sound system the artist posed the question - where does the antic state of sound end?  He liked the experimental flirting between music and sound, that gave a glimpse of something familiar, melodic music, but which was humorous and left the viewer with a lot to think about, and a light heart. Zairong is reminded of a saying by a Daoist philosopher about how caves make sounds, as do the cavities of the body – giving the piece a cosmic resonance.

Sandi Hilal also found it a beautiful performance. She invites the artist to think more about architecture. The part where the artist was playing from behind the wall made her consider how  the piece could work in different locations. That the artist might think of themselves as a co-producer with the location. Also that they could use different instruments, and that this along with different locations would open up many different possibilities.