Gilles Aubry
The Amplification of Souls
(2014)
About
Amplified Souls is a live sound performance by Gilles Aubry based on his research on the Amplified Religious Soundscape of Kinshasa, DRC, which took its place in 2011 for the Global Prayers project. Aubry improvises on a quad sound system with recordings documenting a spiritual deliverance session at the Libambu Ministry Church. During collective praying sessions involving speaking-in-tongues and a massive sound system, church members oppose evil spirits causing various existential problems. The sound, powerful and over-distorted, attests both to their supernatural powers and their capacity for soul amplification. By extension, performance also questions the devotion of noise music fans and the cultural boundaries of faith, noise and technology.