Ela Orleans – a Polish composer and audiovisual artist living between Glasgow and Paris – is a creative force whose work spans an impressive spectrum. Her artistic and professional pursuits range from audiovisual projects and contemporary multimedia to composing for film, television, and opera. She also participates in contemporary art exhibitions, engages in academic work, and performs live concerts on a regular basis. Her performances have graced world-renowned venues such as New York’s MoMA, London’s Tate Modern, the Venice Biennale, and the Sonica Festival in Glasgow. In Lublin, Orleans will present one of her signature works to the Inne Brzmienia audience: the acclaimed Night Voyager. This atmospheric project weaves together the haunting sounds of synthesizers, theremin, violin, and voice, layered with archival NASA recordings from the 1969 Apollo moon mission. In this piece, Orleans connects the raw emotion of the astronauts’ journey with excerpts from Night Thoughts, a profound collection of philosophical poetry written by Edward Young in 1742. She explores the deeper meaning of lunar travel, pairing it with Young’s meditations on mortality, the passage of time, and the folly of humankind.
Although largely forgotten today, Night Thoughts was once hailed as “the most sublime and richest poetry ever produced by human genius.” Through her fusion of sound, space, and poetry, Orleans revives its resonance for a new era.