Matt Stokes : Cantata Profana

About

Cantata Profana (2010) focuses on the intense physicality of extreme metal vocalists and the ability of their music to immerse a listener and transcend the individual performer or group. Stokes collaborated with leading British composer Orlando Gough to interweave factions of extreme metal music culture with classical choral traditions. 
 
Cantata Profana is a 6-screen video installation commissioned by FORMA, installed in a semicircle, recalling ancient amphitheatre architecture. Each of the screens frames one individual musician during an unedited group performance. The musicians, from Kassel, the UK, Norway, The Netherlands and the United States, are all vocalists in bands from hardcore, grindcore and death metal scenes. Stokes and Gough worked with the vocalists to create a composition using traditional choral modes, such as European polyphony, layered with experimental techniques like staccato, noise and texture to present an immersive choral work.