Fremantle Biennale: A Predatory Chord

A polyphonic signal fractures and scatters throughout the space — dispersed across a suspended field of loudspeakers. Cello-like tones rise and recoil in response to an inaudible threat, echoing the murmuration of prey animals under pressure. The room becomes an evolving environment, a volatile ecology of pitch, pressure, and mass. Sometimes, it breathes. Sometimes, it drops into an uncanny silence.

In A Predatory Chord, acclaimed composer Ben Frost pushes the very medium of his practice: the PA system. Loudspeakers — typically hidden — become spatial and sculptural instruments, shaping sound into form. This is more than music, this is a living intelligent system — reactive, physical, and unpredictable.

Originally commissioned for the Rolex Arts Festival, A Predatory Chord lands at the Fremantle Biennale with its full original scale and tension. From the mind behind award-winning scores such as Dark, Frost’s latest work continues his deep investigation into thresholds of sound, technology, and the unflinching wildness of the natural world.