FRINGE REVIEW: "Selfless Orchestra: Great Barrier" is a poignant and immersive ode to the Great Barrier Reef
It is a rare thing that a show with no words tells a story as poignant and immersive as this. The Selfess Orchestra are a collective of musicians from an array of bands in varying genres, but they come together to create something completely different. Musically, the orchestra is reminiscent of other cinematic post-rock groups like Sigur Ros or Godspeed You! Black Emperor- in fact the best comparison to this show would be the famous scene in Wes Anderson’s ‘The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou’, soundtracked by Sigur Ros’s Starálfur.
The performance starts with ‘Eden is Lost’, a stunner of a track that combines beautifully with the serene visuals of reef life to transport you straight to tropical Queensland. The projections are engrossing and fill the main hall of the Girls School Main Hall superbly. The group does justice to the footage used, most of which was sourced from documentaries of the reef. Reverb-laden guitar marks the quieter moments of the song, while the 12-piece orchestra swells to a climax of epic proportions as the action on-screen builds. The sequence sells the great barrier reef better than any commercial could, in fact, the audience probably would have been content for the rest of the show to follow in that vein - but that is not what Selfess Orchestra are about, and as the following tracks began, the dive into despair does too.
The rest of the show detailed the history of human contact with this established, pristine area from the first song. From early tourist exploration through to the current day, the orchestra tells the whole story vividly and emotionally with no words. The waves of sometimes dissonant sound from the bluntly titled ‘Beyond All Illusion Part 1 (Fuck Adani)’ is enough to make one’s blood boil more than any set of statistics on the mine’s environmental impact. Footage of industrial activity contrasts heavily with the beauty shown early in the performance. The second part of the song conjures up feelings of grief over the seemingly hopeless situation for the reef and was a moment of profound empathy I have never experienced from a wordless story like this before. The performance ends on a note of hope, however, reminding us that a deep rallying will be needed to preserve this natural icon in our care- but it still can be done.
What was most impressive about the show was how concisely they conveyed their message. The entire show runs for only 40 minutes, and it never feels like there is a second wasted- the story moves along without lingering too long on any one point. Any negatives of the performance were mostly logistical- in moments of chaos, everything tended to blur together in feedback (apparently caused by the floorboards) that takes out a lot of the intricacies of the studio recording of the songs. The orchestra was also quite physically separated from the projected visuals, presumably because of the limitations of the chosen space.
But on the musical and visual front, the Selfless Orchestra knock it out of the park in almost every aspect. This is an exquisitely crafted emotional experience that will linger with you for some time, and hopefully drive permanent change in your own life. The show draws you in and pulls you along, and the feeling of getting swept up in it all is second to none. And to top it all off, proceeds from the show and the accompanying album go towards groups fighting on the front lines of reef conservation, so there is no reason not to check out this mesmerising and crucially important performance.
