Quote from Alex bobby on April 27, 2025, 4:52 AM

A Sanctuary of Sound: Inside A Right / Left Project’s New Installation ‘ORIGIN’

A short drive from the bustling heart of Manchester lies Dunham Massey, a serene 17th-century National Trust property surrounded by 300 acres of parkland where fallow deer roam freely. It’s in this historical, natural setting that audiences can now experience ‘ORIGIN’, a deeply immersive new sound installation from A Right / Left Project, the creative collective founded by Stephen Dobbie and Colin Nightingale.

Known for their groundbreaking work with Punchdrunk — the visionary immersive theatre company behind revolutionary productions like Sleep No More and The Burnt City — Dobbie and Nightingale are no strangers to pushing artistic boundaries. With A Right / Left Project, they have expanded their vision, crafting unique sound-based experiences that invite audiences into profound, emotional journeys.

‘ORIGIN’, their latest work, explores the themes of life, nature, and grief through sound. But don’t expect a typical sound installation — Dobbie and Nightingale want you to be fully immersed, mind and body, into a sanctuary designed for quiet reflection and personal discovery.

From Grand Stages to Intimate Spaces

While Punchdrunk productions often fill sprawling warehouses and intricate multi-room sets, ‘ORIGIN’ strips the experience down to its emotional core. “We've been a part of some massive scale projects,” says Nightingale, reflecting on the challenge of constantly needing the right conditions to produce large immersive events. With ‘ORIGIN’, they aimed to scale down — to create maximum emotional impact within a single room and minimal intervention.

Inside Dunham Massey’s opulent house, visitors are invited to lie around a central structure inspired by the Himalayan Lily. From this point, the specially composed soundscape envelops them. Unlike a static soundtrack, the installation uses spatializedy sound techniques so that each listener’s experience is slightly different. Some may hear more flute; others, more violin. “In animating the composition like that, it shifts the way you experience music,” Dobbie explains.

The result? A living, breathing sound environment — one that mirrors how we experience sound in the natural world: dynamic, personal, ever-shifting.

Sound as the Anchor of Experience

For Dobbie and Nightingale, sound is not just a component — it’s the foundation. “An image can be as grainy or as distorted as you want, but people will not forgive bad sound,” Dobbie notes. His point is clear: immersive experiences live or die by their audio. Films like The Blair Witch Project succeeded, despite their visual roughness, because of powerful, effective sound design.

Nightingale echoes this sentiment: “We used to joke that, essentially, as long as we had a building and could get sound through it, we could literally switch the lights out and give someone a torch, and they'd have an experience.”

With ‘ORIGIN’, the pair are applying this philosophy fully, creating an environment where the audience doesn’t need elaborate sets or narratives — just sound, space, and their own emotional responses.

An Invitation, Not an Explanation

The emotional themes behind ‘ORIGIN’ are deeply personal, shaped by Dobbie and Nightingale’s reflections on life, loss, and renewal over the past few years. But they are reluctant to impose a singular meaning onto the experience.

“We all have our own relationships with births and deaths over the last couple of years and a lot of that thinking has gone into the work,” Nightingale shares. Beyond that, the duo leave interpretation to the audience. ‘ORIGIN’ is about giving listeners the space to find their own narratives — to sit with their own emotions without being led.

“There are dramatic swells, familiar tropes,” Dobbie says, but also “breaks of sparse atmospheric sections” that leave room for contemplation. It’s a piece of music designed as an invitation: an invitation to reflect, to wander through your own thoughts, and to feel whatever rises.

From Madness to Sanctuary

While Punchdrunk’s shows often push audiences far out of their comfort zones — embracing chaos, violence, even fear — ‘ORIGIN’ offers something quieter, and perhaps more necessary in today’s world: sanctuary.

“We live in a world that’s just madness out there with so many truths,” Nightingale reflects. In an age where information bombards us from all sides, ‘ORIGIN’ offers a rare opportunity: a space to disconnect, to recalibrate nervous systems, and simply to listen.

By removing spectacle and trusting sound alone to lead the journey, Dobbie and Nightingale have crafted an experience that feels radical in its intimacy. It is not just an art installation; it is a form of emotional care.

As A Right / Left Project brings ‘ORIGIN’ back for a new audience at Dunham Massey, they reaffirm their belief that sometimes, the simplest experiences — sound, breath, memory — can offer the most profound transformations.

In a world that rarely allows a moment of stillness, ‘ORIGIN’ invites you to slow down, listen, and find your own beginning.

Conclusion

With ‘ORIGIN’, Stephen Dobbie and Colin Nightingale offer something truly rare in today’s fast-paced, overstimulated world: a space to pause, listen, and reconnect with the deeper cycles of life. By blending cinematic sound with naturalistic experience, they create a sanctuary where each visitor’s journey is personal and profound. Far from the grand spectacle of their Punchdrunk productions, A Right / Left Project strips the immersive experience down to its emotional core, proving that sometimes the most powerful stories are the ones we find within ourselves. In a world flooded with noise, ‘ORIGIN’ stands as a quiet, moving reminder of the beauty in stillness, memory, and reflection.