HYDRONE
Saturday, July 18th, 2026
Lobe Studios
713 E Hastings St
Vancouver
BC V6A 1R3
Time: 4:00pm - 8:00pm
Accessibility Information:
For information about seating, parking, washrooms, and other accessibility information see: Lobe Studio Accessibility.
HYDRONE is a transdisciplinary spatial audio installation by Ruby Singh exploring water as memory, force, and connective tissue. Presented through the 4DSOUND system at Lobe Studio, the work combines environmental recordings, voice, synthesis, percussion, poetry, and climate data sonification to create an evolving sonic ecosystem that moves through water's elemental states of ice, river, rain, ocean, and mist. Inspired by hydrological cycles and the rhythms of the natural world, audiences are invited into a meditative and visceral experience of ecology, memory, and planetary transformation.
Developed collaboratively with Priyanka Chakrabarti (voice, synthesis), Tarun Nayar (tabla, synthesis), and Fiana Kawane (Kathak, percussion), the installation draws deeply from Indian classical and ambient music practices. Cyclical notions of time, seasonality, rhythm, raga-based temporalities, and nonlinear storytelling shape the unfolding spatial compositions, while tabla, voice, synthesis, and movement become central pathways through which audiences experience the work.
Interwoven throughout the installation are reflections on ancestral memory, migration, and displacement. Drawing from Singh's Punjabi lineage and the legacy of Partition, which divided Punjab, the Land of Five Rivers, into two. As rivers continue their journeys beyond the borders imposed upon them, water emerges as both witness and carrier of history.
Enhanced by Lobe's haptic floor, low frequencies resonate physically throughout the space, allowing audiences to feel sound move across and beneath the body. HYDRONE becomes a contemplative encounter with ecological interdependence, ancestral memory, and the emotional realities of a planet in transformation.
Experience this sound installation anytime during the presentation window. Stay for approximately 50 minutes to experience HYDRONE in its entirety, or immerse yourself at your own pace.
MUSIC SERIES PARTNER
about the artist
RUBY SINGH
Ruby Singh is a multi award winning performer, composer, producer and educator residing on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, and səl̓ílwətaʔɬ/Selilwitulh Nations (Vancouver BC.).
His creativity crosses the boundaries of music, poetry, photography and film engaging with mythos, ecology, justice and fantasy. Singh is an artist whose work is informed by sound found all around us, from the whirling planets and stars of distant galaxies to percussion of an umbrella under coastal rains, to the perpetual moving birdsong of the dawn chorus, constantly circling the globe. The richly imaginative visual textures to his sound design have found kinship in the theatre, film and dance worlds, where he has been celebrated by multiple Jessie and Leo award nominations. His distinct approach uses traditional and emergent sonic practices to create compositions that express the vast spectrum of the human experience.
In 2022 Singh received the Lieutenant Governor’s Jubilee Award for excellence in Art and Music. In 2023 he received his inaugural Juno nomination and he won both the WCMA award for best Global Music Artist of the Year and BC Touring Council's Artist of the Year. Most Recently in 2024, Singh was awarded the WCMA award for Electronic / Dance Artist of the Year.
Priyanka Chakrabarti (Piu)
Priyanka Chakrabarti (Piu): Piu is a Vancouver-based vocalist, composer, and interdisciplinary artist exploring the intersection of raga-inspired vocals, electronics, and movement. Anchored in Indian classical training and pulled towards the frontiers of experimental and electronic music, Piu has performed at major Canadian electronic music festivals including MUTEK Montréal, performs with groups like Absolute Unit, and collaborates widely with artists across genres and continents.
fiana kawane
Fiana Kawane is a dance artist, choreographer, educator, and scholar living and working on the unceded xʷməθkwəy̓əm, Skwxwú7mesh, Stó:lō, and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh territories. She specializes in movement vocabularies rooted in Kathak, a South Asian classical dance form known for its powerful storytelling and intimate relationship to rhythm. Fiana has performed independently and collaboratively across India, Pakistan, Canada, Japan, and France. Her practice centres interdisciplinary exchange, public access, and ecological attunement.
Tarun Nayar
Originally educated as a biologist, veteran musician Tarun Nayar brings his passion for nature and sound together in an ambient project that is organismic, immediate, uplifting, and deeply contextual. He uses modular synthesis, home built synthesizers and other analog equipment to improvise with the natural vibrations of a certain place and time - via plant bioelectricity, latent electromagnetic radiation, and even the earth’s resonant hum. Trained from childhood in Indian classical music, he uses the system of Indian raga to mold his musical choices for time of day and season. His performances are an effort to bring the listener into the present moment through vibration, space, and connection.