An office landscape holds stories of friendship, anger, love – and running. A darkly humorous mockumentary in the style of ‘The Office’  meets contemporary classical music and performance art in a new performance created by composer James Black and the ensemble NJYD.

It’s just an ordinary day at the office with small talk in the kitchenette, PowerPoint presentations, and planning of a construction project on the pyramids. Or is it? In the normcore opera ‘Songs Old and New’, a video projection of the absurd office scenes enter a dialogue with an unpredictable spectacle of a performance on stage.

Composer James Black and the ensemble NJYD call a meeting for a surreal and intense exploration of song and voice, where new compositions performed on guitar, saxophone, percussion, keyboard, and piccolo are spun together with everything from line dancing and cat piano to love poetry, lullabies, and vocoder. James Black (UK/DK) has made a name for himself with works that blur the boundaries between pop and experimental music, composed music and live performance. ‘Songs Old and New’ is an unruly genre hybrid that, with equal parts humor and sincerity, celebrates mediocrity while pushing the boundaries of classical music.

Get ready for a workday of the more mind-expanding kind, and enjoy a free cup of black filter coffee once we’ve reached the end – wherever that may be.