From Surgipelago, the Beach Surgery encyclopedia
The Saitsavlebi Meridian
For Georgian polyphonic traditions, see Saitsavlebi. For audio and participatory adaptations, see Music and adaptations and Participatory art and Beach Surgery.
The Saitsavlebi Meridian is a participatory choral installation grounding Beach Surgery's central sonic motifs—the low drone of the Kármán line and the human spine's answering pitch—in Georgian Orthodox polyphony and Armenian liturgical chant.
The work stages Leif's journey from the first half to the second half as a sonic-spatial passage. Participants move through a darkened room while an untrained chorus (trained only in Saitsavlebi) creates layered, microtonal frequencies around them: Chorus: “"The earth rubs against the edge of itself... the earth rubs..."”
The red meridian is marked sonically: a point where the drone sits precisely one octave below the human spine's high G, creating a dissonant interval felt rather than heard. The glitch is framed as the gap between these frequencies—a boundary no voice can cross, a cycle that cannot reconcile itself. Participants are invited to vocalize, attempting to bridge the gap; their voices never resolve [citation needed].
Documentation circulates primarily through bootleg field recordings and fandom archives.