"Guelph is a community where Le Cyc can exist. In Guelph it's easy to find a community of people that are willing to support your shows."
"The only problem we had at Dublin Street was that rigging the screen took a long time," joked Eihab Boraie, composer of the graphic novel bike opera, Le Cyc. "We had to get up on the balcony with our grappling ropes and large hooks."
The screen Boraie is referring to provided the audience at the Dublin Street United Church on Friday with projected visuals of a bicycle dystopia that was seamlessly accompanied by an array of sounds made by a six-piece band with Boraie at the helm.
The Polydactal Hearts Collective, the group of seven Guelphites that wrote and perform Le Cyc give their audiences something to be interested in for the entire 70 minute performance. Although the sound inside Dublin Street was uncharacteristically flat, with some of the lyrics in the opera being lost in the mix, the 380 visuals afforded by artist Dave Willekes and the dynamics of the sound filled in the blanks.
"The style that I was creating music before Le Cyc, didn't seem like the typical song," said Boraie about composing music for the opera. "It usually seemed like I was doing some kind of soundtrack." The hour long composition of Le Cyc provided a story line that you could feel as well as hear. The jagged, sometimes avant-garde sounds that accompany the evil dictator Mis de Berm described his twisted and misguided thought in a way that could not be described through lyrics.
The idea to have a graphic novel bike opera came to Boraie and band mate Andra Zommers when Willekes was on a cross Canada bicycle trip. "It started with a few friends sitting around joking that all the pedaling they were doing could power a city," said Boraie.
From there, the idea has blossomed into a collective that Boraie and his band mates remain humble about. Playing Dublin Street was a big deal for Boraie. "That was just monumental for me. I'd been to that church before and it's probably my favourite venue in Guelph. I never thought I'd get to a point when we could actually get enough people there to justify renting it. To have a show there is very humbling."
On Friday night, the performance of Le Cyc was epic. My senses were satisfied as Willekes' images appeared behind the free jazz sounds of the collective. The story follows a man named Jean Paul who bikes his way to freedom from the rule of the oppressive dictator Mis de Berm who has won (by eliminating his competitors) the democratic bicycle race elections 12 years running. The opera culminates in a dramatic and edge-of-your-seat bicycle race between the two opposing forces, with the music increasing the intensity and casting the audience further into the conflict.
In speaking about the themes of Le Cyc, Boraie was quick to point out that "there are a lot of things buried in Le Cyc that hint toward a certain cause or struggle. However, we purposefully made sure not to put a label on it. The overall comment we were trying to present is that no matter how good you have it, you should always question your authority."
As the Polydactal Hearts Collective performed their last showing of Le Cyc earlier this week in London, they are excited to put the opera away for a little while and concentrate on something new: "We've been commissioned to premier a show at the Images festival in April. The Images festival is a crazy multimedia festival that goes on in Toronto," said Boraie noticeably excited about the new venture.
The collective wants to explore their multimedia ideas further, this time with a shorter, more experimental piece. "We don't want it to be a sequel to Le Cyc," said Boraie. "It's going to be a totally different idea in both approaches. Musically its going to sound a lot different, and visually its going to look a lot different."
Whatever it might be, I think we can expect something unique from the Polydactal Hearts Collective come April. Boraie long-time Guelph resident ends on an appreciative note.
"Guelph is a community where Le Cyc can exist. In Guelph it's easy to find a community of people that are willing to support your shows."
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