It’s an eerie experience to enter a cold, dark swimming pool late at night. It’s stranger still to do it to the gentle lullaby of plucked strings on a giant harp that you’ll continue to hear reverberating underwater as you swim.
LA-based harpist Mary Lattimore played three night-time shows inside the Ian Thorpe Aquatic Centre as part of Sydney Festival’s Seidler Salon Series, a series that brings music and architecture together in unusual meeting places. The three playful and experimental concerts all sold out in advance, and those who attended enjoyed a novel evening of otherworldly sounds in a chilly, but warmly lit 50-metre pool.
Lattimore stayed dry, along with her borrowed Concert Grand pedal harp, while her audience sat on the edge of the pool, or floated in the centre using a combination of pink pool noodles and floatation aids. One woman brought her own inflatable unicorn, adding to the whimsy.
Photograph: Prudence Upton
Lattimore shared songs from her 2018 album Hundreds of Days, including the apt ‘It Feels like Floating’ as swimmers dipped their heads back and watched the light reflecting off the wave-shaped roof. It was mesmerising. The calming sensation of water bobbing underneath you, carrying your weight, made the delicate, rhythmic sounds of Lattimore’s harp feel magical. There were truly joyful moments, too, as motionless bodies accidentally drifted too close to one another, and when pool noodles popped out from underneath the water, resisting the pressure to stay submerged.
Some brought goggles or snorkelling masks to spend more time below the surface. Some sat, fully clothed, on the chairs provided at the side of the pool. Others waded, unsure of what position suited them best. For us, we found the most pleasure simply floating. What we could hear underwater was faint, or dulled by the sounds of other people, or the movement of the water itself. The suraquatic soundscape was where we found bliss.
Photograph: PrudenceUpton
Playing with sound is something Lattimore is already known for. She has collaborated with indie musicians including Kurt Vile and Jarvis Cocker, and she uses synthesizers to create warped, electronic effects with her traditional harp playing. Experimenting with water feels like a natural fit for her, and though the environment was out of the ordinary, so are her songs. Listening to them under that Harry Seidler-designed roof was like hearing the the first drops of rain on a summer’s day; romantic, surprising, and a little unsettling.