In Paris in the early 1780s, Franz Anton Mesmer was attracting attention for his showy demonstrations of “mesmerism,” or what would later be called hypnotism.

The solo percussion piece, Dark Ground, performed by Joby Burgess, eschews stick-juggling mesmerism in favour of the layering of complex processes and contrasting timbres.

“You know what it is,” he said, “it’s mesmerism,” the gimmicky pseudoscience that had hoodwinked an earlier era.