An Impossible Sound

Rory Pilgrim received a grant for the development of new work. The Impossible Sound is an interdisciplinary, musical performance. The project is a culmination of an exhibition of the same name and a three-year development trajectory that began in 2024. The performance features Rory himself on harp, singer Robyn Haddon, a Zeeland-based choir, and local musicians. Two young protagonists from the film participate through narration and performative scenes. The concert connects music, film, storytelling, and visual art around themes of law, ecology, and the choices facing young people in peripheral regions (Portland, UK / Zeeland, NL). Through live vocals, new choral arrangements, and spatial scenography, the audience becomes part of a musical loop centered on the tension between staying and leaving.

Rory works across a wide range of media, including songwriting, composing music, film, music video, text, drawing, and live performances. Centered on emancipatory themes, he seeks to question the ways in which we come together, speak, listen, and strive for social change through sharing and voicing personal experiences. Strongly influenced by the roots of activist, feminist, and socially engaged art, he collaborates with others through various methods of dialogue, collaboration, and workshops. In an age of increasing technological interaction, his work creates connections between activism, spirituality, music, and the ways we form community both locally and globally, from both beyond and behind our screens.