Garden Nights: Doyenne - Camden Art Centre

'A Midsummer Night’s Dream' featuring Damsel Elysium, Richie Culver, Flora Yin Wong and Scratchproof Orchestra

‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ is an evening of live music, ritual and experimentation courtesy of Doyenne, a multi-disciplinary label and publishing house initiated by writer and experimental sound artist Flora Yin Wong. Label collaborators and affiliates, Damsel Elysium, Richie Culver and the ever-rotating Scratchproof Orchestra from HforSpirit will be joined by Yin Wong and Haunter’s VISIO once again for various improvised sessions and ritual offerings for a summer’s party.

Garden Nights is a seasonal programme of multi-disciplinary live events at Camden Art Centre’s Garden.

The Artists

The Artists

Doyenne is a small-scale experimental publisher and label founded in 2023 by writer and sound artist Flora Yin Wong, focusing on ephemera and the divine feminine. Expanding into collective and communal-focused experiential events, the label gathers intimate and personal work from musicians, writers, and visual-based artists without restricting their form.

Multi-instrumentalist, composer, and visual artist, Damsel Elysium utilises double bass, violin, piano and field recordings to explore intangible connections to the natural world. Having previously performed at the likes of Southbank Centre and Tate Modern and collaborating with artists including FKA twigs, they will be premiering a bespoke set inspired by rituals for the garden.

Richie Culver is a British multidisciplinary artist whose work spans painting, photography and sound. Often autobiographical and socio-politically charged, his work is a testament to life in the north of England, seeping through his collaborations with the likes of Middlesborough-based label Industrial Coast, artists like Moor Mother, Michael J Blood, Pavel Milyakov and Hannah Perry.

Flora Yin Wong is a sound artist and writer from London, UK. Her debut albums were released on Modern Love and hasfeatured on labels PAN and Danse Noire and has performed at clubs like Berghain and Razzmatazz to galleries Palais de Tokyo Paris, The ICA, MACRO Roma, MMCA Seoul, Fondation Beyeler Basel, Volksbühne, Somerset House, The V&A, Atonal, Unsound, MUTEK Peru, Buenos Aires, and Montreal, Cafe OTO and New York’s ISSUE Project Room. Her first book ‘Liturgy’, exploring the lines between fiction and non-fiction was published in 2021 on Primary Information.

Scratchproof Orchestra is an ever-growing collective of musicians—an amorphous, non-obligatory jam circle led by composer and cellist HforSpirit who will be joined by Haunter Records’ VISIO and Flora Yin Wong using various traditional instruments including hurdy-gurdy, guzheng, cello and vocals. HforSpirit conducts a catharsis in sound, breathing life into traditional practices through their solo work and multi-collaborations with artists like Space Afrika and Blackhaine. Their film project UnTyMe documents a pagan-inspired rave escape to the Cumbrian mountains. HforSpirit has devised music for Sadlers Wells, Turner Contemporary and the Dakar Biennale, Senegal.