“Music of the mountains, climbing hills, looking at new horizons.” A duo with a strong musical background that goes beyond electronics and jazz, now facing the North. NorthFace is a Finnish-Belgian collaboration of singer Anu Junnonen and pianist Benjamin Van Esser. Together they compose music using electronic sounds, acoustic instruments and voice. They find inspiration in the Nordic music scene and electronic music artist such as Arve Henriksen, Sidsel Endresen, Alva Noto and Murcof. NorthFace+ is an audiovisual collective, where video artist Joop Pareyn and sound designer Frédéric Braye join the musical duo.
NorthFace+ performance is all about interaction between visuals and the music. The spectator will experience sound and visuals from several perspectives. The public is taken upon a travel that subtly hints towards an organic affinity, where the spectator will find his own points of interest and takes a look from different perspectives. Slowly a fragile entity that evokes universality will be revealed to the spectator.
Northface + is a total experience where the spectator finds rest from every day life's chaos, and has the time to set the compass for a while towards the north.
The performance of NorthFace+ was created with the support of the arts center STUK. During one year STUK provided all technical support allowing the group regularly work on this performance.After several open rehearsals and a premier during the opening of STUK 2011-2012, NorthFace+ is ready for all public. Despite the strong technical construction, the performance is merely a serene, almost dreamy experience for the spectator. You can compare it to an open fire that instantly catches your attention and leads you to an oasis of inner peace. An ideal escape from our busy, sometimes chaotic, everyday life.
The lyrics speak about the change of the seasons, the cosmos and the life in the North ("After the warm summer comes the fall and then arrives the ice cold winter" in North Verse). You visit other spheres (Outer Space), meet a local on some planet and after a long conversation discover that we all have the same dreams (Equal Dreams). Curious about the winds, (Wind Blow) cold temperatures and the snow, (Somatic) the alien travels along to The Earth. 
The sound engineer uses surround 3D-sound reproduction, which gives the audience an exceptional sense of space.The abstract visuals are being mapped on volumes, not on screens as usually. This way the projections give a 3D illusion and can be viewed in the right perspective from each spectator's viewpoint. The images stimulate the imaginary in public's eye in order to experience the music and space as one. This performance is a discovery of original electronic music, interactive video mapping and boundlessnes.