Gessnerallee
Zürich

«The Hooks» explores the phenomenon and the mechanics of Hooklines*. While pop songs are ephemeral and while the preferences of the listeners change, the hookline, once it has settled into the circuits of memory, continues to exist subconsciously. As if it took its listeners captive, the melody writes itself into one’s memory for ever.
In his performances, Damian Rebgetz researches personal and cultural memories that arose from his work with hooklines and pop songs of the 1980s. Together with the composer Paul Hankinson, the dancer Anna-Luise Recke and the artist Emma Cattell he unfolds a complex fabric in which various black boxes are opened and put into connection with each other. Remixed pop songs of the 1980s become incantations of a «post-disco-topical» melancholy. «The Hooks» is a visual song cycle for vocals and piano and asks the question: To be hooked or not to be hooked.

*A musical phrase with earworm quality