The Western Pacific archipelagic nation of Tuvalu has high levels of exposure to both local and abstract climate change stressors. The sea level rise poses a fundamental risk to its very existence. Tuvalu’s vulnerability to the impacts of climate change characterises it as a ‘sinking’ nation.

This reality inspired Pascal to form the musical ensemble Tuvalu with the intention to reflect on the human relation to nature using texts and poems slammed in the native tongues of each ensemble player : French, Flemish, Greek, English, Farsi, German and Occitan. The stage plot consists of sixteen sounding curtains which surround the audience, 8 musicians and a poet circling nine sounding islands at the very center which symbolise the South Sea archipel Tuvalu. 

The octet is made up of two almost identically quartets or four duos that make Tuvalu sing, hiss, shimmer, hum and scream: a carpet of sound from which colors, patterns, melodies and improvisations emerge. Pascal Niggenkemper’s Tuvalu is initiated by the SWR New Jazz Meeting 2024.