Fridges By Candlelight: Refrigerator 2 -

Description 

⏱️ Duration: Approximately 55 minutes. Doors open 30 minutes before the performance. opening act starts 12pm sharp.

Try and be on time. but if you're a little late, you can probably sneak in quietly. but the opening act is Laura Moir, who is whistling sweetly, so you won't want to disturb that.

Experience the music of the often overlooked whiteware appliance, the refrigerator. With a piezo contact microphone attached to the compressor, a steady tone can be wrought from the fridge, and skillfully manipulated with distortion, delay and reverbs, Kaos pads and more. 

Mark Chirnside will also tastefully employ the 10 foot Steinway piano, to create music. 

Support act: Laura Moir (whistler) ft. Anand Yoganathan. 

Is your fridge musical? 

Think your fridge has what it takes? Fill out the form HERE to apply for an audition and give your appliance the chance to achieve greatness on stage. 

FAQs

What is Refrigerator 2?

Refrigerator 2 is, arguably, the musical event of the year. 45 minutes (plus stoppage time) of melodic, ambient and apocalyptic music as played on a range of acoustically gifted fridges. Hear New Zealand’s most accomplished fridgicians use Piezo contact microphones to manipulate fridges such as the Eurolux ELCF100 to make haunting, even ethereal sounds, in the gorgeous setting of Christchurch’s Great Hall. In the midst of darkness, hundreds of candles will set the stage aglow to provide the perfect backdrop for this grand sensory experience.

Why use refrigerators to make music? Isn’t this all a bit inefficient?

Yes, but much like a cake - well, actually, nothing at all like a cake - sometimes you’re rewarded for taking the road less travelled. As the great Robert Frost once wrote:

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

Some believe that this was a meditation on human regret, second-guessing and the irreversible choices we make. But actually, he was talking about making music with fridges.

Putting aside that his use of the emdash leaves no doubt that he wrote the poem with AI, we nonetheless agree with him.

Why Refrigerator 2? Is there a Refrigerator 1 that I missed?

No. Yes. Well, no. Yes. Sort of. Refrigerator 2 is a blockbuster, sure-to-get-bums-in-seats cash grab sequel to Refrigerators by Candlelight, a smaller, more intimate event that does exist, but has yet to happen. We all see the success of safe-bet sequel making where inventing an original property is a lot more risky, so we thought, instead of taking a bet on an original idea, why don’t we skip straight to the sequel?

I bet Pixar wishes they could do the whole Toy Story 5 Tim Allen Tom Hanks reunion Taylor Swift soundtrack shebang without going through all the polava of Toy Stories 3 and 4.

Do I need to see refrigerator 1 before seeing refrigerator 2, or will it still make sense to me?

Absolutely you do not, but if you’d like to, we’d love to have you on July 31st at Crafted Coffee Company, 121 Blenheim Road. It’s not necessary viewing, but it might help you to appreciate some of the fanservice-style references in Refrigerator 2.

The Great Hall is Christchurch’s most revered, hallowed heritage venue. Is it really an appropriate place for such an undignified event?

How dare you?

But yes, yes it has.

I’m concerned about the environment

Alright.

Are your fridges energy efficient and CFC-free?

While playing music with fridges requires a variety of refrigerants - which we promise will bring a panoply of delights to your senses - we also endeavour to keep our fridges as environmentally friendly as possible. We could use old CFC fridges - which do produce some interesting, exotic, and classic sounds - but instead we’ve taken the high road. So you can rest assured. About this. The rest of the world? We can’t help. It’s really over.

Can I participate in this in any way?

Actually, YES YOU CAN! And we’re actively on the look out for fridges. Have you ever listened to your fridge, and thought “hm, I like the sound of that”? Well, you may not have thought it, but your fridge could have a career in music. Historically, fridges have been discriminated against as musical artists, often overlooked in favour of pianos, guitars and even just some piece of metal bent into a triangle. But fridges are complex, they’re rich, they have personalities and contents.

We know your fridge has a day job, but if it could spare some time, we’d love to see if it has what it takes to join us on stage.

ENTER YOUR FRIDGE

We promise to take the very best care of your fridge, and cover any damages that may result if in the unforeseen event it meets a grisly, undignified end.

If you’d like to learn more about the history of fridges in music, we invite you to read our dedicated page on musical fridge history.