REVIEW: Hannah Peel & Beibei Wang
Review Date: 24th October @Barbican Hall
REVIEWS
Kassy Fang
10/26/20262 min read
Beibei Wang & Hannah Peel ©️Photo by Raphaël Neal
The evening at the Barbican Centre began underground. In Underland, Hannah Peel’s score accompanied Robert Petit’s film, based on Robert Macfarlane’s book, taking us through caves, abandoned mines and subterranean landscapes that evoked the depths of the ocean and the vastness of outer space. Against these striking images, the layered voices of Shards lent the music a quality of lament, at once solemn and compassionate. The combination of choir, electronics and film created a powerful meditation on geological time and humanity’s place in the natural world, with an underlying unease about the traces we leave behind.
The second half brought Hannah Peel and Beibei Wang together in The Endless Dance, a playful exploration of electronics, prepared piano and percussion. Drawing inspiration from the 24 solar terms of the Chinese calendar, the music combined composition and improvisation, with an element of spontaneity running through their exchanges.
Wang’s energy was infectious, and her percussion went beyond the conventional idea of a drum or cymbal. Alongside traditional instruments from across East and Southeast Asia, she drew sounds from an unconventional collection of everyday objects, including a piece of toilet pipe and several rice bowls. These unexpected materials became part of the musical vocabulary, suggesting insects, flowing water, distant thunder and other sounds from the natural world. There was real pleasure in watching her experiment, finding musical possibilities in objects that most of us would never think to treat as instruments.
Alternating between piano and an electronic setup, Peel took on a shaping role, weaving the various elements of the arrangement together. She introduced patterns for the percussion to interrupt or develop, while also responding to her collaborator’s musical gestures. Their interplay had an appealing fluidity, balancing rhythmic insistence with moments of strangeness and delicacy. The electronic and acoustic elements pushed each other into new territory while retaining their distinct identities.
South Korean musician Dasom Baek joined the set on the daegeum, a traditional Korean bamboo flute, bringing its breathy, resonant tones into the mix. Her playing placed the instrument’s traditional character alongside more experimental sounds, adding another dimension to the duo’s electronic and percussive textures.
Between pieces, Peel and Wang spoke about the conversations that had informed the album, giving a glimpse of how the collaboration had developed since the musicians first shared a stage. What emerged was a sense of an artistic relationship still unfolding, sustained by curiosity and a willingness to explore unfamiliar sonic possibilities together.
The programme was thoughtfully assembled. Underland established a serious, almost elegiac perspective on the world beneath us; The Endless Dance approached nature through rhythm, material and intervention. The two works were connected by Peel's distinctive sonic sensibility. What made the evening so rewarding was the openness between the musicians, whose different approaches and musical backgrounds fed into a shared spirit of discovery.
★★★★★
For more information, please visit: https://www.barbican.org.uk/whats-on/2026/event/hannah-peel-beibei-wang-underland-performed-by-shards
Credits
The Endless Dance
Hannah Peel (composer, performing musician)
Beibei Wang (composer, performing musician)
Underland
Hannah Peel (composer)
Chester Tribley and Bronte Tucker (arrangements)
Robert Petit (visuals)
Shards led by Kieran Brunt (vocals)
Singers: Kate Huggett, Lucy Cronin, Rose Martin, Sarah Latto (Choir Leader), Jack Lawrence-Jones, Edwin Hughes, Ben Thompson, Michael Alchin
Produced by NewForm Music
Based on the film ‘Underland' (2025) directed by Robert Petit, produced by Darren Aronofsky, Ari Handel, Lauren Greenwood, Jessica Harrop. A Sandbox Films, Spring Films, Protozoa Pictures, Planet Octopus Studios production
Based on the book Underland (2019) by Robert Macfarlane
Sound Behind Curtain
A place for all Asian artists.
Your gift keeps the curtain rising for Asian creatives.
About
Contact
© 2026 Sound Behind Curtain. All rights reserved.
Terms & Conditions Privacy Policy