ACOUSTICS
EartH (Evolutionary Arts
Hackney) is a vibrant new live
music, arts and performance
space located in the former
Savoy cinema in Dalston, east
London, UK. It is the brainchild of Auro
Foxcroft, founder of Village Underground,
a commercially successful, sustainable and
community-driven initiative providing
affordable workspaces for artists and other
creatives. Lovers of the independent spirit,
the experimental and free thinking,
Foxcroft and his team drove this project to
painstakingly restore the derelict space to its
former art deco splendor.
The drive to innovate led EartH to
permanently install Europe’s first L-Acoustics
Immersive Hyperreal Sound (L-ISA)
technology in a concert hall. The installation
was led by L-Acoustics and Adlib. The two
companies worked closely with Foxcroft and
his team to specify and install the 360° L-ISA
configuration, with the aim of delivering
an exceptional audio experience benefitting
audiences and artists alike.
Heaven on EartH
“Initially, when we first made contact with
Auro, we were looking at a standard left-right
configuration for both upstairs and downstairs
spaces,” says John Hughes, director at Adlib.
“However, when Auro met the L-Acoustics
team on-site, they highlighted how perfect the
upstairs venue was for an L-ISA configuration.”
Having an extraordinary sound system was
always central to Foxcroft’s plan to reinvent the
building, as he wanted to make performances
truly memorable. After hearing L-ISA, the
EartH team were convinced that this was the
right solution for the venue.
These things take time
The old cinema’s balcony area had been closed
off, forgotten and left to rot for 30 years after
a final screening of Scarface in 1984. It is now
a 750-capacity theater and concert hall space.
The downstairs area has been reinvented as
a multipurpose club and social area, and a new
restaurant has recently opened. These spaces
have been designed to offer an animated and
inclusive environment.
The ground-floor, club-style venue
demanded a high sound pressure level and
excellent low-end response for the DJled
music program, so a classic left-right
L-Acoustics system was chosen. In the new
theater space upstairs, however, the brief was
more ambitious and complex; this is where
Foxcroft wanted the immersive audio system
to support a heterogenic program ranging
from spoken word, dance and performance
art to all genres of music.
AUDITORIA 2019 VOLUME ONE 37