In the ensemble’s first appearance at the Canberra International Music Festival, Rubiks presents Gemma Peacocke’s Waves & Lines; a multimedia song cycle for soprano, electronics, and chamber ensemble based on a tradition of Afghan women’s folk poetry. Collected in the book I Am the Beggar of the World: Landays From Contemporary Afghanistan, these poems offer a surprising and vivid – and often humorous – glimpse into the lives of women existing under the watch of an ultraconservative regime.

Exploring the distance, anonymity, and strange intimacy of phone calls, text messages, and radio broadcasts in which the poems are shared, the song cycle features fixed electronics, projections and the stunning vocals of Persian born, Melbourne based performer Gelareh Pour.