On October 31 at Espace C, during the third night of the Akousma festival, Montreal sound artist IRL, also known as Amanda Harvey, presented Big Room, an immersive piece where sound becomes space, memory and sensitive matter.
IRL’s practice revolves around listening, sound architecture, and the body as receiver. With Big Room, they shape an auditory landscape that gradually envelops the audience. The room opens like a breath: a slow vortex of bass, drones, and radio frequencies that seems to transform the space, bending and stretching it. The sound doesn’t simply fill the space; it reconfigures it. We no longer know if we are moving within the music or if it is the music that is circulating around us.
A Lynchian atmosphere quickly takes hold. The dark, grainy layers of analog synthesizer breathe like nocturnal entities. Their slow modulation suspends time and creates a floating state where the music imposes no emotion, but opens up an inner, available, floating space. The lo-fi textures, the deep, enveloping bass, and the delicate melodies reveal a subtle, almost secret, ambient beauty.
On stage, IRL deliberately effaces themselves. No spectacular gestures, no imposing presence: only the sound remains, autonomous. As they emphasize in their interviews, they want the audience to be able to close their eyes and hear only the soundscape.
Big Room is not simply something to be listened to. It transforms the room into a memory and makes the interior space vibrate, offering an immersive experience that transcends performance to become an intimate journey into the heart of imaginary spaces shaped by memory and sound.
