LIMBIC: Ego, Elegy, Ecstasy @ Inspace, Edinburgh
An avante-garde poetry and music collaboration based on Peter Scalpello's debut collection tells a vital story, but is held back by its venue
Peter Scalpello's debut poetry collection, Limbic, is an innovative and tender exploration of chemsex, desire, trauma and gender. Based on that collection, LIMBIC: Ego, Elegy, Ecstasy is a collaboration between Scalpello and composer/DJ Philly Holmes (a.k.a. sweet philly). Scalpello reads their poems as Holmes responds with electronic soundscapes, utilising AI to voice some of the words. The performance is enhanced by projections of Scalpello's textually playful poems.
The performance opens with "Statement", about the aftermath of a sexual assault. The poem has two distinct voices, although they both describe the same experience. One is a first-person description of going to the police after the assault. The other is more detached and reflective, almost documentary-like in its descriptions of the fight or flight response. The in-the-moment voice is spoken by Scalpello, the other by an AI. The interplay between human and AI works extremely well in this moment. The AI voice also works well for the poem "DON'T REALLY HAVE A TYPE BUT PLEASE BE MASCULINE", reciting "preferences" that often appear on hook-up apps: "big guys not into smiling no camp". I've often thought such generic, reductive phrases may as well have been written by bots.
Holmes's soundscapes at times work wonderfully to bring a new level to the work, for example on "ode to tracksuit". The music builds in urgency whilst Scalpello, reading with a soft intensity, intones a poem alive with sexual desire.
Unfortunately, the show takes place in the sterile, institutional setting of a university conference centre. This might not have mattered had this been a simple poetry reading, but the fact that the collaboration was aiming to bring new dimensions to the work, including the visual and atmospheric, leaves the venue feeling like a stumbling block to immersion in the performance.
Given the limitations of the space, the collaboration was impressive; this reviewer would love to see future hybrid creations from Scalpello and Holmes.