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K Mak at the Planetarium

 
Alec Martin Review by Alec Martin 3 Published: 3 Aug 2025 Summerhall Show Dates: 31 Jul 2025-24 Aug 2025

With K Mak at the Planetarium, Brisbane musician Kathryn McKee (K Mak herself) sweeps into Summerhall’s Demonstration Room alongside a cellist, violinist, drummer, and a small battalion of synths and other sound-processing gizmos. Together, they perform a range of songs against a backdrop of projected visuals, which range from biological and botanical to intergalactic psychedelia.

There’s undeniable pleasure in surrendering to K Mak’s lush sonic waveforms.

When it clicks, the effect is gloriously transportive: for a few minutes, you’re cocooned in a pocket galaxy where Björk-ish vocal shards dance with Reich-like ostinatos, and the peeling paint overhead feels less like neglect than industrial chic. When it doesn't, the performance falls a little flatter, and the relationship between sound and visuals feels decorative rather than symbiotic. It’s striking to look at, just not always meaningful.

However, throughout it all, McKee’s performance craft remains admirable, and her assembled musicians all give powerful performances. She has a stage presence that feels both precise and warmly informal, and her vocal processing (pitch-shifts, granular frays) adds welcome unpredictability. Still, one occasionally longs for deeper narrative threads.

There’s undeniable pleasure in surrendering to K Mak’s lush sonic waveforms, and on a purely sensory level, the hour rarely bores. But ambition alone can’t bridge every gap between sight and sound: the stars glitter, the room reverberates, and somewhere in the middle, a good idea hovers, half-resolved.

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The Blurb:

Stirring, electrifying soundscapes usher you through the cosmos as K Mak fuses live cello, violin, synths, beats and vocals with sumptuous, tailored visuals. Continually selling out homeland Australia, her arresting show now comes to Edinburgh where a legendary festival venue becomes an enthralling, immersive planetarium. 'I had an outer body experience at K Mak'. 'Truly immersive and cathartic'. 'It was really good except it made Mum cry'. 'We’ve travelled the world and never experienced anything like it'. 'I’d go again in a heartbeat'. 'K Mak is AMAZEBALLS' (Audience Reviews).