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Hadalpelagic Wounds
Hadalpelagic Wounds
'Hadalpelagic Wounds' is an immersive performance art collaborative piece combining piano, voice, performance art, and electronic sound. Inspired by the ocean, the piece follows a siren’s transformation revealing both beauty and peaceful destruction.
Both George and Cléo connected and became friends because they both love the ocean and bonded over their shared passion for ocean conservation and advocacy work. They also both have synesthesia. With their shared interest in mind, they knew from the start that they wanted to create an oceanic, siren inspired track.
'Hadalpelagic Wounds' started in September 2025. Spur of the moment, George was on the piano and Cléo was vocalizing, dueting with the piano. Luckily, Cléo recorded the 15 minute long improv on her phone through voice memos. It was pretty much a fully formed song at that point.
Within the next couple of weeks, George and Cléo combed through the voice memos and selected their favourite 'magic moments', which they later refined and re-recorded into the final version of the song. Fun fact, the last 3 minutes of the song, is the original raw voice memo recording from their initial improv.
The process of creating the track was not limited to "sit-down" studio work. They went out with a hydrophone to different lakes in Vancouver to capture sounds to be used on the track, to further bring the ocean into the listening experience.
"It's more than just a song, it's a whole experience"- Cléo
During the process of creating 'Hadalpelagic Wounds', Cléo dislocated her knee while practicing for their upcoming live performance for the Fall 2025 Music & Sound Festival, where they were scheduled to debut. Instead of a dance piece like The Delfines intended, Cléo had an idea to transform it into a stationary performance to accomodate her injury. She got a plastic tarp and transformed it into waves of the ocean, where she could sit and emulate a "siren on a rock" imagery. It worked out serendipitously, and ironically real "wounds" were acquired while making this song.
On the studio track, the live piano and vocals were layered with the ocean field recordings, ocean-based samples, and Logic Pro MIDI instruments to create an ambient environment. The song also incorporates sound movement to reflect on the siren’s changing identity.
The work explores unpredictability, transformation, and the relationship between sound, movement, and space through an oceanic experience that moves between calm atmospheric sections and more distorted, euphoric moments.
The Delfines always had performance art in mind alongside the music-making when devising 'Hadalpelagic Wounds'. Cléo was working at a costume store and did special effects make-up for the wounds in her costume. She sourced her costume from her own personal collection. George himself, has a personal collection of seashells and artifacts, in which he brought to decorate the set and gift the audience members as a part of the performance, to leave a piece of the ocean with the audience.
Now The Delfines bring the ocean to you. Listen to 'Hadalpelagic Wounds' now!
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