Aurum | through a prism is an installation that combines original music with evocative visuals projected onto the interior of St Asaph Cathedral. The music is a reimagining of Aurum | Golden Light that was commissioned by the North Wales International Music Festival in 2021. The concept for the work was developed as a response to how music could be presented to audiences in a new and safe way during the Covid-19 pandemic. The piece combines projected visuals with music composed for a wind trio of Flute, Alto Saxophone and Bass Clarinet. 

Originally conceived as Pepper’s Ghost illusion, a method of projecting an image onto a clear screen to give a ghostly impression of a person performing, Aurum | through a prism became a dramatic installation that combined sound and projected visuals that were mapped to the interior of St Asaph Cathedral. 

Both the visuals and sounds appear as if fired through a prism that distorts, delays and multiplies the motifs and ideas. Beginning very softly, the music develops into a hazy veil from which more melodic fragments cut through. Initially the musicians appear against the stone backdrop but as the musical lines grow in intensity and compete for space within the texture, the visuals become more complex and produce evermore elaborate kaleidoscopes. 

A brief hiatus in the drama preempts a humongous swell into a more grounded section where the Golden Light theme is more defined. The projected visuals show the musicians standing in a conventional format, but upon closer inspection there appear to be multiple figures trying to breakout, and at times ghostly remnants appear to be chasing each musician. Eventually the music runs out of energy and both sound and visuals begin to dissipate back into the original kaleidoscopic veil before gradually drifting into silence.