KlangHaus: A Sensory Revolution at Brighton Festival

Brighton Festival 2024 welcomes KlangHaus, an artistic collective delivering a staggering 97 performances across two distinct shows throughout May. This ambitious undertaking dwarfs other festival contributions, with the next closest performer offering just 12 shows. KlangHaus brings “Last Haus on Earth” and “Darkroom” to Brighton Dome’s Anita’s Room, each presenting a radical reimagining of what performance art can be. These exclusive experiences break traditional boundaries between audience and performers, creating immersive environments where sound, light, and space converge in ways that challenge conventional performance expectations.

“Last Haus on Earth” transforms Brighton Dome into a living canvas, merging the raw energy of art-rock band The Neutrinos with visual artist Sal Pittman’s evocative filmmaking. The performance invites audiences into what feels like the performers’ home—an enhanced domestic setting where attendees are encouraged to sit, stand, move around, and become part of the experience rather than passive observers. The journey unfolds across various emotional and sensory landscapes, from moments of delicate quietude to explosive, all-encompassing sound and light. Divided by film screens, projections, instruments, and theatrical elements, the space becomes both intimate and expansive as audiences follow a narrative path that Karen Reilly, co-devisor and singer, describes as moving from “make-yourself-at-home” comfort through urban intensity and oceanic depths to cosmic vastness. The performance creates a saturated environment of music, light, and color that dissolves the traditional distance between performer and audience.

Meanwhile, “Darkroom” offers a radically different but equally powerful experience—an intense 20-minute installation limited to just six audience members per showing and performed in complete darkness. Developed in collaboration with climate scientists from the University of East Anglia’s Tyndall Centre, this multi-sensory piece functions as what creators call a “climate-chaos wake-up call.” Originally presented at Glasgow’s COP26 International Climate Change Conference, “Darkroom” has been reimagined specifically for Brighton Festival. The show creates what the artists describe as “virtual reality for the ears and eyes,” using sensory deprivation and carefully crafted sound to provoke deeper emotional responses to the climate crisis. As Karen Reilly explains, “We are using our skills as artists to help people to think, talk and move towards an essential reimagining of the way we live. Darkroom feels like a critically important show for us.”

The creative force behind both productions is a unique collaboration between The Neutrinos, a self-described “art-rock maverick band,” and Sal Pittman, whose film projections transform entire spaces into immersive visual environments. This partnership has already gained international recognition, with “Last Haus on Earth” recently completing a successful 17-show run at Paribu Art in Istanbul during late March and early April. The collaboration represents a powerful fusion of musical innovation and visual artistry, with Pittman’s projections literally wrapping around both performers and audience to create environments that dissolve conventional separation between space, sound, and observer. The Neutrinos further commemorate this project with the release of the “Last Haus on Earth” soundtrack album on May 1st through Wet Nurse Records, extending the experience beyond the live performances.

What distinguishes KlangHaus from typical festival offerings is their fundamental reconsideration of what constitutes a “performance space.” Rather than adapting their art to fit conventional venues, they transform environments to serve their artistic vision. In “Last Haus on Earth,” the domestic setting becomes both intimate and expansive—a space where audiences can physically navigate between performers, projections, and sound sources. The performance operates across what they describe as a “breathtaking spectrum” of sensory experiences, creating dramatic shifts in mood and intensity throughout. Similarly, “Darkroom” uses sensory limitation—complete darkness—to heighten other perceptions and create a uniquely affecting experience. Both approaches represent radical departures from traditional performance models, offering festival-goers experiences that cannot be replicated in conventional theater or concert settings.

Brighton Festival’s support for such boundary-pushing work reflects the event’s commitment to innovation and artistic risk-taking. With performances running from May 2nd through 23rd at various times throughout each day, KlangHaus provides festival attendees multiple opportunities to experience these unique productions. The scheduling intensity—97 performances across just three weeks—demonstrates both the creators’ endurance and the compact, intimate nature of these experiences. Unlike traditional performances that might run once or twice during a festival, these brief but intensive shows (particularly the 20-minute “Darkroom”) allow for continuous rotation of small audience groups, maximizing accessibility while maintaining the personal, intimate quality that defines both experiences. These Brighton Festival exclusives invite audiences to reconsider not just how they experience performance art, but how artistic expression can engage with broader questions about human connection, sensory perception, and environmental consciousness.