Totem Off Series

“Rusting is a natural process of oxidation—often associated with neglect, deterioration, decay and ruin—whose aesthetic dimensions tend to be overlooked. Examined closely, a piece of rusted iron reveals a fantastic richness of colours, textures and forms.”

The duo Rust takes its name from an appreciation of this specific kind of spontaneously arising natural beauty, most commonly encountered when human constructions are exposed to the natural elements.

RUST (Jean-François Laporte and Benjamin Thigpen) perform on newly invented, constantly evolving acoustic and electronic instruments. Since 2013, the duo has been working with various configurations of prepared piezoelectric elements, short-range acoustic feedback, inductors, vibrating objects and computers. The music of Rust is deeply rooted in the specificity of these instruments as they exist at a particular moment. It explores the interaction between willed human intervention and unpredictable, unstable processes that often exhibit a life and will of their own. Based on physical materiality and acoustic realities, the duo interacts strongly with the acoustics of the concert space, filling the hall with complex webs of physically palpable strands and blocks of sound.

Rust does not believe that music is an intellectual activity but rather that it is a total physical experience, powerfully enveloping and sweeping away the entire being. The music of Rust is not based on learnedly elaborate constructions but on the sheer power of sound itself: dense textures, rich colours, constantly evolving soundworlds, complex polyphonies emerging from within a single sound. Organic and authentic, intense and primal—it is an immersion in the pure experience of sound.