“The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear,

and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.”

(H. P. Lovecraft)

Yuggoth belongs to a series of three pieces inspired by survival horror computer games and horror fiction, as well as my internal need to understand what it means that “contemporary music sounds like horror music,” a statement I’ve heard in reaction to people’s first encounters with modernist-era music.

In this piece, the relationship between sound and gesture is deconstructed, reattached, and looped into new “Frankenstein” constructs. The performers, their instruments, and their alter egos on the screen resemble mannequins that emerge from their frozen state to let out bone-chilling sounds.

Yuggoth for three instrumentalists, electronics, and video is part of the Horror Project, audiovisual environmental theatre with a guide, which I have been developing since 2018.

Nina Fukuoka