REFRAKTO is an audiovisual performance and installation created exclusively for St. Katharinenkirche in Frankfurt by Danish composer duo Den Sorte Skole, visual artist collective Vertigo and local organist Prof. Martin Lücker.

REFRAKTO combines music, sound, light formations and laser mapping to create an immersive audiovisual experience. The underlying vision is to investigate different traces of divinity in our history and our sense of a sacred space to explore fundamental questions about the role of religion and unity. What happens when the context of religious expressions is dissolved? When a Gregorian choir chant with a shaman from Congo in a visually distorted church-room? When time and space of the architecture is transformed together with a Hindu poem processed through a vocoder?

The music is composed from samples of religious and spiritual music recorded through the last seven decades. From field recordings of indigenous tribal ceremonies, Sufi chants and Benedictine choir-traditions to classical Arab vocal music and contemporary experimental electronic music. The visual side combines custom-built LED and laser mapping illuminating the church and tying together the musical traces of religion, modern technology and the architectural space of the church.

REFRAKTO will be performed as a seated one-hour live experience each night of the Luminale and as a 15-minute ongoing installation echoing the performance.