Tracking Satyrs into Morse is a staging in sound of the surviving yet fragmented satyr play by Sophocles, translated into Morse code. The play’s dialogues and unfolding plot, together with the ruptures in Sophocles’ ancient papyrus, are seen through the musical lens of the Morse code.
Apollo’s cattle have been stolen by the newborn Hermes, and Apollo promises a reward to anyone who can find them. Hoping to earn gold and their freedom in return for the cattle, the satyrs, led by Silenus, set out to track the animals’ footprints. In front of a cave, they discover confused tracks, as if heading in opposite directions, created in order to conceal the theft.
From the cave in which Hermes is hiding, they hear the sound of a lyre – an instrument that Hermes has just invented. They are frightened by this strange new sound. Cyllene, the nymph of the mountain within which Hermes is hiding, comes out of the cave and explains the nature of the instrument using a riddle: the child invented a voice for a dead animal that was mute when it was alive. After a series of guesses, the satyrs discover that the lyre has been made from a tortoise shell. They see the cowhide stretched over the tortoise shell as proof that Hermes is the thief of Apollo’s cattle.
Just as the papyrus of Sophocles’ play breaks off, Apollo has returned and we are left to imagine him hearing Hermes playing the lyre and deciding to exchange his cattle for his future instrument.
duration 50′
Demetrio Castellucci is a composer and sound designer who has been involved in theater productions, choreography, and film since 2004.
Around the same time, he began performing as a DJ, favoring an omnitemporal approach geared toward dance that transcends musical genres. Since 2006, he has been a member of the dance company Dewey Dell, and since 2007, he has been active as Black Fanfare, a maximalist electroacoustic project. He has collaborated on performances by Andreco and Enrico Ticconi/Ginevra Panzetti, as well as on films by Ahmed Ben Nessib, Beatrice Pucci, and Ilaria di Carlo.
After living in London and Berlin, he settled in Vilnius, where in 2018 he founded Unarcheology, a digital platform that publishes music and radio programs.
He is also active as Airport Gad, an ambient project which, together with Unarcheology, launched its own “Airline Company”: concerts in a flight simulator built from cardboard, where the pilots are also the musicians.