immersive music

In The Dark 360° Concert Returns to London in January

in the dark London: Andrea Cockerton's award-winning 'in the dark' returns to London in January 2025. Read more. Get the details. See what to know.

Tom Rander

— 2 min read
Photo credit: in the dark – Official
Photo credit: in the dark – Official

Estimated reading time: 3 min

Unamplified 360° concert returns to Holborn Church

Andrea Cockerton's in the dark returns to St. Andrew's Church, Holborn for four performances on January 22, 23, 29, and 30, continuing the unamplified 360° format that won the Offies Assessors Choice award during its 2024 London season. Around 30 musicians—drawn from West End productions, the Royal College of Music, and Guildhall School of Music & Drama—perform in complete darkness around and among the audience, who wear sleep masks throughout the hour-long set. (Original source)

The format strips away both visual reference and electronic reinforcement: no amplification, no conductor, no phones. Music moves through the 400-capacity church as a choreographed spatial journey, with each performance intentionally different depending on acoustics and real-time interplay. (Live 360° Immersive Music IN THE DARK Experience Returns to ...) Since its 2017 Cambridge launch, the project has staged over 60 performances for more than 8,000 attendees, including one-off editions beneath the Cutty Sark in Greenwich. (in the dark • the live 360° immersive dark music experience)

Sleep masks, acoustic circle and sensory rebellion

The format strips away every convention of contemporary live music: total darkness enforced by sleep masks, zero amplification, and sound sources that circulate through and around the audience. Musicians play without visual cues—no conductor, no sheet lighting—while performers move through the space, creating a choreographed 360° sound field that shifts with each performance. (in the dark | Royal Museums Greenwich)

Cockerton frames the project as "a quiet, sound, rebellion" against screen saturation. The repertoire—described officially as a "secret mix" crossing ambient, Scandi nu-folk, indie and experimental—deliberately avoids classical and jazz, targeting listeners fatigued by projection-heavy immersive shows. Each night's interplay between architectural acoustics and performer intuition ensures no two performances are identical, positioning the work as low-tech sensory theatre for the post-smartphone era.

Why darkness challenges projection-heavy immersive events

Projection-mapped LED cubes, video walls and spatial AV rigs have become the default vocabulary of "immersive" ticketed experiences, yet in the dark turns the paradigm inside out: by eliminating all light and amplification, it forces spatial sound design to do the entire heavy lift. The format sidesteps load-in complexity and venue technical riders—no rigging, no video servers, no DMX universes—which has enabled the project to stage editions in historically protected spaces including beneath the Cutty Sark, where projection and electrical load restrictions would typically block event hire. Acoustic 360° staging also collapses the barrier between performer and audience; with no stage lighting or conductor, musicians rely entirely on breath cues and haptic timing, embedding them physically within the seated listeners. (Darkfield: immersive audio experience)

Sources

How we reported this

We reviewed the original coverage from EGNews and cross-checked key details against the sources above. If something is unclear or changes after publication, we’ll update this post.

About the author

Tom Rander — is a journalist and electronic music specialist who has spent years documenting the intersection of club culture and technical innovation. With a background rooted in both the booth and the press room, Tom founded Rander.io to provide a more rigorous, expertise-driven alternative to mainstream music blogs.

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