Exaudi framför Ansgar Bestes samtliga fem vokalverk, bl a det prisbelönade verket 'In the steppes of Sápmi' (2014-15).

Tre av verken (nr 2, 3, 5) är baserade på samiska djurjojkar och önskar därmed att förankra denna viktiga gränsöverskridande nordiska musiktradition bättre i klassiskt nordiskt musikliv. Även ett fjärde stycke (nr 1) behandlar en nisch från musikhistorien: medeltidsmusik av Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179), en viktig tidig kvinnlig tonsättare. Det sista verket (nr 4) tematiserar poesin från gamla tider på ett klassiskt-avantgardistiskt och kritiskt sätt.

Vi får höra fem uruppföranden: Två av verken (nr 2, 3) har aldrig framförts tidigare på något sätt, men även de övriga tre verken presenteras för första gången antingen som blandad sextett-besättning (nr 1, 4) eller i fullständig längd (nr 5).

Total speltid: c:a 60 min.

Mascarade Nocturne

The work Mascarade Nocturne was first of all inspired by a courtly masquerade resp. by a traditional masked ball in former centuries. Old and more recent dance rhythms of popular music are generated by vocal noises and elements of vocal percussion, i.e. by the imitation of the drum-set through human vocal articulation.

The dance rhythms appear in diverse variations: treatments like augmentation/diminution, permutation and modulation result in a rhythmic texture with varying degrees of density, partly through polyphonic superpositions. This rhythmic framework gives rise to a musical form consisting of three more animated and two contrasting calmer sections (A B A' C A'').

In these calmer sections B/C the masquerade is surrounded by a nocturnal atmosphere – quiet, meditative, lyrical and cantabile in character, suggesting the image of night, moonlight and dreaming. Three vocalists are making use of their singing voices, repetitively quoting shorter melodic excerpts from the 'Dark' Ages: from the medieval opus magnum Ordo Virtutum (≈ 1151) by Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179).

Even though the excerpts were selected almost exclusively according to their melodic uniqueness and expressiveness and even though they are performed as a vocalise, they also embrace a textual dichotomy which might be related to the emotional ambivalence of the night:

The excerpts used and fragmented in the through-composed sections (bars 26-41 / 43-57 and 73-88 / 90-104) could stand for the inner fears of the dark: 'succurrite mihi' (come and support me) from Anima Illa (no. 11), 'fugo […] Diaboli' (I'm fleeing from the Devil) from Verecundia (no. 47) as well as 'curre' (run now!) from Humilitas ad Victoriam (no. 75). By contrast, the excerpts provided as a basis for two improvisational sections (bars 42 and 89) could symbolize the light at the end of the tunnel: 'speculum vitae' (mirror of life) and 'fontem salientem' (leaping fountain) from Fides (no. 33) as well as 'O victoria' (Oh Victory) from Humilitas ad Victoriam (no. 75).

Nytt verk 

Ett minimalistiskt jojk-stycke i variabel besättning och längd

(Dés)Illusion d’un chant

The main idea of the piece is to create the illusion of a song, by using short joik fragments and increasing them in length and density. After the climax (at the golden section) the song is deconstructed again, making the illusion a disillusion.

The work is supposed to merge classical avant-garde music with traditional Nordic folk music. At the same time, the work shall deliver a unique contribution to the Romantic lied tradition.

The vocal part is based only on one joik, a folk melody from the Sami people of Lapland, a cultural region in Northern Europe (Norway, Sweden, Finland, Russia).

Joiks are short melodies, performed soloistically without coherent lyrics, with only few words or phonetic syllables and with a noise-like chesty vocalization. Joik melodies are usually repeated many times during the recitation with a gradual rise in tempo and tonality towards the end.

Most of the joik melodies represent famous people from the past, but some represent animals of the region. These animal joiks imitate the characteristics of the animals’ sounds and movements. In this case, the joik melody represents the wolf.

Poème Parodique

The main idea behind the piece is a confrontation of two timbral processes within the sound world of a prepared vocal ensemble: On the one hand, a poetic lava of slowly moving sound masses from harmonica playing singers, on the other hand, a parodistic fireworks of emotional, theatrical and quickly moving interjections from whistle blowing speakers.

Formally, the composition is divided into 8 sections, of which sections 1-4 and 7-8 represent the confrontation between singing and speaking voices, whereas sections 5-6 are entirely sung and form a kind of static climax.

The development of densities runs in the same direction (in both timbral processes) in sections 1 and 8, but in opposite directions in sections 2, 3, 4 and 7. The development of pitch or brightness proves to be rather static in the spoken layer, but dynamic in the sung counterpart, in which the registers are rising between sections 1 and 4, but falling between sections 7 and 8.

In the steppes of Sápmi

Sápmi is the Sami word for Lapland, the cultural region in Northern Europe (Norway, Sweden, Finland, Russia) which has traditionally been inhabited by the Sami people. The largest part of Sápmi lies north of the Arctic Circle, resulting in a subarctic climate, a sparse vegetation and a steppe-like landscape. Only few animals can survive in this wasteland: reindeer, wolf, bear and different birds.

Sami people have their own traditional folk songs, the joiks: short melodies, performed soloistically without coherent lyrics, with only few words or phonetic syllables and with a noise-like chesty vocalization. Joik melodies are usually repeated many times during the recitation with a gradual rise in tempo and tonality towards the end.

Most of the joik melodies represent famous people from the past, but some represent animals of the region. These animal joiks imitate the characteristics of the animals' sounds and movements: The vocal technique of the growl voice, for example, is supposed to simulate both the wing-beats of a northern hawk owl (movement) and the cawing of a crow, the roaring of a bear or the growling of a wolf right before attacking its prey (sound). Also the particular intervallic-rhythmic shape of a melody can in some cases imitate the movement (e.g. the waddling, hopping and stumbling over the fields of a crow) and in other cases the sound, in an onomatopoeic manner (e.g. the howling of a wolf or the birdcall of the long-tailed duck).

Traditionally, joiks were both sung at work (while herding reindeers, hunting or fishing) and at any kind of social event (esp. weddings and shamanic séances).

In these religious ceremonies, it has been reported that the shaman, while playing the magic drum, joiking and gesticulating, was trying at the same time to invoke helping spirits and to fall himself into a state of arousal, ecstasy, trance and deep unconsciousness. In this state, the soul was supposed to separate from the body, to follow the helping spirits on their journey to the realm of shadows and finally to receive divine inspiration and epiphany.

As the auxiliary spirits were believed to have animal forms, they were called by imitating animal voices. In order to support the shaman, especially when he was lying motionless on the ground, his assistant and the participants from the community constantly and ceaselessly joiked the same animals during the entire séance.

For these overall strenuous efforts it is presumed that a certain degree of loudness, distortion and monotony of the voice resp. of the chant have been necessary.

The main idea of this work is to reflect on the sparse steppe landscape of Sápmi and to create an atmospheric soundscape, by combining the timbre of extended and prepared vocal techniques with the timbre of joik vocalization and with animal sounds from 6 traditional Sami animal joiks, imitating the following 6 animals: long-tailed duck (S), crow (Mez), northern hawk owl (A), reindeer cow (T), wolf (Bar) and bear (B).

The musical and textual repetitiveness of the joik has been made to a compositional principle for the entire work, illustrating the monotonous, repetitive scenery of the steppes.

The overall formal dramaturgy of the piece, continuously and polyphonically heading for one final climax, can on the one hand be perceived as the successive gathering and incitement of a group of animals, resulting in a wild, roaring animal orchestra.

On the other hand, the whole process can be interpreted simply as one single, elongated and polyphonic joik performance, or as an allusion to a shamanic séance, with the magic drum represented by vocal percussion and with the ritual ecstasy and epiphany in the very end.

The work consists of 6 parts:

Part 1 (b. 1-40) is a shorter inversion of the last part and serves as an anticipated climax.

Parts 2-4 (b. 41-639) and part 5 (b. 640-746) are gradually building up the 6 joik melodies from small fragments, until they finally appear in complete versions (e.g. in bars 635-639 and 742-746 as a dense canon).

In parts 2-4, these isolated animal sounds join together with extended vocal techniques and elements of vocal percussion, i.e. with the imitation of the drum-set and popular-music rhythms through human vocal articulation. A systematic, pre-compositional elaboration, differentiation and sound-typological structuring of the so-called extended vocal techniques has been undertaken in advance to allow for one elongated and smooth 15-minute timbre transformation from air sound via several intermediate stages to sung pitch.

In part 5, the pure joik cells (excluding vocal percussion) form an increasingly complex dialogue, resulting in a continuous density crescendo, thus preparing for the final part.

Part 6 (b. 747-829) is composed as one complex polyphonic joik using 3 traditional joik methods for increasing tension towards the culmination in the end:

- gradual (microtonal) transposition of the joik melodies upwards.

- gradual accelerando by shortened single notes.

- gradual accelerando by accelerated metre.

Om 21 pieces for Piano

Den som till äventyrs spelar igenom samlingen 21 Pieces for Piano finner citatet ”If you play them through, you may reach 42” lite här och var, längst ner på sidorna. Det är kanske lite studentikost, men det samlade verkets speltid enligt mitt notskrivningsprogram är totalt 42 minuter, och den som känner till boken Liftarens guide till galaxen vet att 42 är på samma gång den ultimata frågan och svaret på Universum och allting.



Tidigt i min ungdom tog jag pianolektioner på kommunala musikskolan i Karlstad. Min lärare var en fantastisk pedagog, men jag en ganska medioker elev. Jag har dock alltid haft en stark kärlek till pianot. 21 Pieces for Piano kan liknas vid en katalog över hur jag närmat mig olika speltekniska och kompositionsmässiga problem, men också som en övning inför den där pianokonserten som ligger och jäser i datorn.



Varje stycke i samlingen har sin egen historia. Ofta är det två idéer som ligger i konflikt med varandra, eller som i nr 18 där melodin inramas av ett illusoriskt vindsus i diskanten och en rörlig bordun i basen. Vissa stycken är ganska korta och enkla, andra precis tvärtom. Samlingen avslutas med ett polka-fyrverkeri inspirerat av pianisten György Cziffra. Jag hoppas att musiken ger er en fin upplevelse.

Mats Edén

Pianisten Carl-Axel Dominique har beskrivit 21 Pieces for Piano som "ett äventyr med sina helt olika låtar. Tidlösa rytmer och klanger från alla möjliga håll; pianot måste sjunga melodier och bli till en hel orkester med alla tänkbara och otänkbara attacker och nyanser".

Lyssna på ett kort utdrag av stycket här: https://soundcloud.com/svenskmusikvar/utdrag



Mats Edén är verksam som tonsättare och musiker inom traditionell och experimentell folkmusik liksom konstmusik och fri improviserad musik. Han samarbetar med musiker som Leif Stinnerbom, Ånon Egeland, Guro Kvifte Nesheim, Lena Willemark, med flera. Han blev 1979 först att utnämnas till riksspelman på enradigt dragspel och 2015 först att erhålla Kungl. Musikaliska akademiens folkmusikpris. 2019 erhöll han Zornmärket i guld. Mellan 1983 och 1987 studerade han komposition för Olav Anton Thommessen och Lasse Thoresen vid Norges Musikhögskola i Oslo. Han har samlat in traditionsmusik med Leif och Inger Stinnerbom, med vilka han även grundade ensemblen Groupa. Han har vunnit och nominerats till ett flertal Grammisar och Manifestpriser, senast Manifest-nominerades albumet Annual Growth Rings med Stefan Klaverdal i kategorin Experimentell.

Läs mer om Mats Edén på: www.matseden.se

När Norma Jeane Baker skrev sitt första kontrakt med Twentieth Century Fox färgade hon sitt hår blont och ändrade namnet till Marilyn Monroe. Efternamnet var hennes mormors.



Tonsättaren Christofer Elgh utforskar kvinnors roll i kulturen och har länge fördjupat sig i Marilyn Monroe. Vem var hon, egentligen? I Sincerity utgår han från texter av henne själv och stycket är utformat som en föreställning där musikerna blandar sig i och läser delar av texten. Flygeln är heller inte bara ett instrument utan en möbel som får en dramaturgisk funktion i föreställningen. Ett särskilt fokus har också rösten. 



– Jag skriver alltid för särskilda sångare, i det här fallet Alexandra Büchel som har både ett lågt och extremt högt register. Och Sincerity kräver verkligen en virtuos sångare!



Christofer Elgh har komponerat ett sjuttiotal verk, däribland två kammaroperor, kammarmusik, orkestermusik samt musik till dansföreställningar och filmprojekt.



Även Catharina Backman har ett starkt fokus på musikdramatiska verk. Hennes musik är suggestiv med effektfulla melodiska gester och stark rytmisk energi. Hon är medlem i gruppen Katzen Kapell och har komponerat för Malmöoperan, Kungliga Operan och Teater Halland, bland annat. Syndabekännelse för mänska komponerades i kölvattnet av 9/11; terrorattackerna i USA 2001, och hur de dåvarande mäktigaste männen i världen valde att hantera situationen med upptrappat våld och idiotiska fruktansvärda krig. ”Jag föreställde mej Gunnar Björlings text och min musik som en inre uppgörelse, en självrannsakan gjord av en sådan maktperson och också hans sorg och längtan efter ett annat liv, försoning, frihet. Men idag kanske texten och musiken innebär något helt annat”, säger Catharina Backman.

Fredrik Hedelin är tonsättare men forskar också kring musik och filosofi. Hans konserter för flöjt, violin respektive piano och ensemble från 2013-15 var alla en del av hans avhandlingLevande musik – ritornellen och musikens skapande som lades fram 2017 vid Luleå Tekniska Universitet. ”Filosofin belyser musikens form som ett speciellt skeende med utgångspunkt i mitt sätt att komponera”, har han sagt om sitt arbete. 



I ett helt nytt stycke har han vänt sig till poesin och en text av Jila Mossaed som 2018 efterträdde författaren Kerstin Ekman på stol nr 15 i Svenska Akademien. Hon är född i Teheran och ett återkommande tema i hennes poesi är exilen, också på en rent språklig nivå. Centralt är även kampen mot orättvisa och censur. ”Varje språk som ger mig frihet att uttrycka mig mot orättvisan är mitt hjärtas språk”, säger hon. Men i det nya stycket Det snöade hela natten för sopran och kammarensemble är det istället några av Mossaeds många glödande kärleksdikter som står i centrum.



Fredrik Hedelin är utbildad vid Kungliga Musikhögskolan i Stockholm för bland annat Sven-David Sandström och Pär Lindgren, samt vid IRCAM i Paris och mästarkurserna i Piteå. Han har också studerat praktisk filosofi och estetik vid Stockholms Universitet.

Konserten inleds med musik av Minna Leinonen som ofta låter sig inspireras av miljöer från hemlandet Finland. Det är mycket som kan tilldra sig hennes intresse, men ofta rör det sig om vardagsfenomen som höjer sig över det vanliga. Grunden till hennes Intre handlar om ”den rusande känslan av att få barn”. Stycket är i tre satser som spelas utan uppehåll. Den långsamma inledningens tunga puls utsätts för ständiga attacker, men övergår snart i mellandelens oroliga flimmer. Med sina skira klirrande klanger och skevande blåsinstrument mynnar den tredje och sista delen ut i en trolsk och magisk känsla.



Sopranen Alexandra Büchel har på kort tid etablerat sig som en av de främsta uttolkarna av modern och nutida musik. Hon har sjungit roller som Gepopo i Ligetis Den Stora Makabern och Niece i Brittens Peter Grimes. 



Dirigerar gör B Tommy Andersson som sedan många år har ett nära samarbete med Norrbotten NEO.  Han är tonsättare och professor i dirigering vid Kungliga Musikhögskolan i Stockholm och har lett alla de stora svenska orkestrarna.

Carin Bartosch Edström, har studerat komposition för Rolf Martinsson, Hans Gefors Lars Ekström, Lars-Erik Rosell, och Sven-David Sandström. Hennes opuslista innehåller en mängd kammarmusik – ofta med sång , orkesterverk och musikdramatik. Hon grundade Lunds studentopera och var orkesterchef för Musica Vitae i Växjö 1990-1992.

Hon är en av grundarna av den kvinnliga tonsättarföreningen Opus 96 och var tillsammans med Mats Rondin och Marianne Jacobs även grundare av Skanör och Falsterbo kammarmusikfestival.

År 2011 debuterade Carin Bartosch Edström som författare med kriminalromanen Furioso om en svensk kvinnlig stråkkvartett.  

Carin Bartosch Edström är också verksam som översättare, t ex av libretton och Egmonts seriepocket Kalle Ankas Pocket.

Georg Riedel, född 8 januari 1934, är en svensk musiker och kompositör. Riedel är känd för sitt samarbete med pianisten Jan Johansson på skivan Jazz på svenska, Sveriges genom tiderna bäst säljande jazzinspelning med sparsmakade jazzversioner av svenska folkmelodier, samt för sina tonsättningar av sånger till filmer baserade på Astrid Lindgrens böcker.

Georg Riedel föddes i Karlovy Vary i dåvarande Tjeckoslovakien i en böhmisk-tysk familj. Hans mor var judisk och familjen emigrerade till Sverige för att fly nazisterna när Georg var fyra år. I skolåldern började han i Stockholms folkskolors sångklasser.

Efter att först ha spelat fiol gick han över till att traktera kontrabasen. Han har spelat tillsammans med jazzmusiker och jazzgrupper som Jan Johansson, Arne Domnérus, Lars Gullin, Jan Allan, Radiobandet, Gunnar Svensson, Egil Johansen, Rune Gustafsson med flera. Riedel spelade bas i jazzgruppen Trio con Tromba.



Efter Jan Johanssons bortgång 1968 tog han över komponerandet av musiken till TV-serier och filmer efter Astrid Lindgrens böcker. Två av de mest minnesvärda kompositionerna är Du käre lille Snickerbo och Idas sommarvisa. Därefter fortsatte han att skriva musik till barnvisor. Utöver alla Astrid Lindgren-visor har han tonsatt Lennart Hellsing (Bananskiva 1976) och Barbro Lindgren och skrivit signaturmelodin till TV-serien Alfons Åberg.

Georg Riedel har även skrivit en del konstmusik, bland annat en opera efter August Strindbergs Hemsöborna för Folkoperan i Stockholm och körmusik, bland annat till texter av Tomas Tranströmer. Hans senaste verk (2009) är ett körverk Passion för Jorden med text av Karin Liungman.

Daniel Börtz, född den 8 augusti 1943 i Osby. Han har bland annat skrivit flera operor och ett beställningsverk kallat Strindbergssvit. Han var elev till Rosenberg, Blomdahl och Lidholm. I de större orkesterverken, främst de elva sinfoniorna (1973–2006), förenar han en episk hållning besläktad med Bruckners och ett samtida ofta strängt strukturerat tonspråk.



Börtz har även skrivit flera konserter för soloinstrument och orkester. En annan verkgrupp är de rent solistiska Monologhi 1-11 (1965–84). Hans litterära orientering märks i hans största verk från 1960-talet – kantaterna i Kafka-trilogin (1966–69).



Daniel Börtz har tonsatt Euripides tragedi Backanterna (1990) med Sylvia Lindenstrands röst i tankarna för rollen som Dionysos.[2] Med Backanterna (regi: Ingmar Bergman) kom en länge efterlängtade succé för den Kungliga Operan. Från La Scala, Parisoperan, och världsutställningen i Sevilla kom frågor om gästspel liksom från operan i Prag, Houstonoperan i Texas och från backanternas hemland Grekland.

Bland hans senare kompositioner bör särskilt nämnas blockflöjtkonserterna En gycklares berättelser (2000) och det stora oratoriet Hans namn var Orestes (2001–02), baserat på Aischylos Orestien, Pipor och klockor (2002) och hans pianokonsert Sånger (2004) samt operorna Marie Antoinette (1997), Svall (2003), Magnus Gabriel (2006) och Goya (2008). Operan Goya med liberetto av Magnus Florin hade urpremiär den 26 september 2009 på GöteborgsOperan.



Operan Medea – efter pjäsen med samma namn – uruppfördes 23 januari 2016 på Kungliga Operan i Stockholm. Regissör var Stefan Larsson och dirigent Patrik Ringborg.

Tack till Östergötlands Musikdagar.

 

Wojciech Ziemowit Zych – Always present longing (10’)(2005)

The title of Stale obecna tęsknota (Always present longing) derived from Tadeusz Wielecki’s phrase from narrator’s text from his piece Egocentric Poem for amplified piano and tape (1996). The piece, dedicated to Tadeusz Wielecki, was written for Kwartludium Ensemble in spring 2005 as a result of my mutual cooperation with the Ensemble in the past several years, what reflects also its scoring + bassclarinet, violin, vibraphone and marimmba (1 percussion player), and piano. In the piece there are used multiphonics and other contemporary playing techniques for bassclarinet, double stopped harmonics combined with glissandi on the violin, double bowing technique for vibraphone, as well as resonating harmonics on the piano in the final movement. The piece consists of three compact movements (I. Andante, II. Allegro, III. Lento) , of which second and third are played without a break. The piece has been included by Kwartludium Ensemble in their first CD published by Dux Recording Company in 2008. First live performance by Kwartludium was during Musica Polonica Nova Contemporary Music Festival in Wroclaw/Poland in April 2010.

Giedrė Pauliukevičiūtė – Glass (10’)(2019) "Glass" ("Stiklas") - I like watching rain, how the transparent raindrops go down the glass of windows. The crying glass blurs the view and transforms itself. This piece revolves around the changes, which are sometimes beyond the reach of our thoughts. Giedrė Pauliukevičiūtė

Chihchun Chi-sun Lee - Zusammenflusses (10’)(2019) is commissioned by National Theater Concert Hall in Taiwan, premiered by Mr. Min-Chin Kuo at his zheng recital in 2013. Using the characteristics of zheng and vibraphone, their similarity and contrasts are expressed through confluence. The revision for percussion and grand piano was completed in 2019 and premiered by Piotr Nowicki and Paweł Nowicki on 3ed of October 2019 during XXVII.RANDFESTSPIELE in Berlin-Zepernick.

Tadeusz Wielecki – Multiple image for ensemble (13’)(2016) The composition is inspired by “dynamistatics” – a mysterious state that refers to everything that is movement and rest at the same time. And that’s what the music is: whenever we listen to it. We experience something similar to a “resting motion” or “motile rest”. For music is both dynamic and static, and these two properties cannot be separated. This phenomenon was the topic of the Warsaw Autumn Festival in 2015 and for its purpose a neologism-oxymoron “dynamistatics” has been invented. Multiple image, referring figuratively and literally to the Pythagorean concept of harmony of spheres and a vision of rotating celestial bodies, which circulate creating a sound system of cosmic harmony, is dynamistatic par excellence: its construction relies on numerous sound loops, i.e. repeated harmonic formulas overlapping each other. Each of these formulas is part of one harmonic structure common to the entire work, but maintains a different tempo, distinct from the others.

Fredrik Gran - VOLD for violin, clarinet, piano and percussion (15')(2018) VOLD draws its material from speeded down pop music recordings. Highly detailed digital productions manipulated through simple technological processes like change of speed or reversing reveal unexpected details: dramatic inflexions resulting from the stretching of time, extreme wide vibrato, reverberant atmospheres and stray harmonics. In an attempt to creatively ‘acoustify’ plastic sonorities, VOLD breaks apart the initial meaning of mainstream love songs into a deranged otherworldly landscape. VOLD was composed with support from The Swedish Arts Grants Committee's International Music Programme

Ivo Nilsson - SMOG (10”)(2019) for Kwartludium SMOG was inspired by the novel with the same title that Italo Calvino wrote in 1958. Now, more than 60 years later, it proves to be ahead of its time not only because of the environmental crisis but also to the debate today about “fake news”. In the novel the protagonist discovers that everything in the town that he arrives to for the first time is covered by dust from the pollution. In a similar way, I wanted in my music to explore the combination of sounds that occur when the instruments activate simultaneous resonating sound sources. As if they also were covered by acoustic dust - which is also the title of the first movement. In the second movement we find a proposal for an equivalent to the cloud of the smog. And in the third and last movement there in an interpretation of the breath – both heavy and sensual. SMOG was composed with support from The Swedish Arts Grants Committee's International Music Programme

Joakim Sandgren - révélateurs mécaniques for four musicians (10’)(2017) révélateurs mécaniques was composed with support from The Swedish Arts Grants Committee's International Music Programme

Adina Forsberg 

I Lepidoptera utforskar jag fjärilseffekten, tanken om att en fjärils vingslag på ena sidan jorden kan orsaka en orkan på andra sidan. Jag försökte hitta vägar att transformera en liten rörelse till oreda. Jag försökte utforska hur något litet kan växa till en rymd. Och slutligen försökte jag förena ensamma toner och låta dom bilda en helhet. Fjärilen är inte bara ett tecken på en, potentiellt, kommande storm i en annan del av världen, det är även en symbol för förändring, själen och livet. 

Anton Berglund - "I morgon har det gått en vecka och då ska jag berätta” 

Stora delar av mitt liv har jag tyngts av en svår ätstörning. Jag har i flera år velat göra en komposition som kapslar in detta, men velat vänta tills jag känner mig mogen och tillräckligt duktig för att kunna gestalta en så pass komplex emotionell erfarenhet. Men allteftersom tiden från mitt tillfrisknande går blir jag mer och mer distanserad från det. M􏰬innesbilderna blir vagare. Det är över tre år sedan jag blev frisk och jag insåg att det nu var rätt tid för detta arbetet. För att komma i kontakt med de fysiska och psykiska tillstånd jag då befann mig i försökte jag försätta mig i situationen igen genom att under en vecka inte äta något alls. Jag valde också att, precis som då, inte berätta det för någon. Under denna vecka antecknade jag varje dag hur jag kände och vad jag tänkte och har sedan baserat stycket på de anteckningarna och mina minnen. Det ni ska få höra är ett stycke som behandlar skörhet, tvivel och destruktivitet och i och med detta uruppförande kommer ni få ta del av mitt avsked till mitt livs största smärta. 



Ylva Freds Material for String Quintet kan beskrivas som en personlig historia som gestaltas genom tre olika tyger. Stycket har i sin storform palindromska egenskaper!



Elvin Matz - Funny Inconcequences of Buddha är ett verk skrivet för stråkkvintett i tre satser. Titeln till stycket kommer från ett inte så väletablerat begrepp inom konstmusiken som lär ha myntats av Stockhausen. Andemeningen i uttrycket är, att om man följer ett system när man komponerar och så råkar ett misstag som bryter mot systemet slinka in i noterna, så ska man inte alltid vara för snabb med suddgummit (eller backspace-tangenten). För det är just sådana här tillfällen som är FIOB, de kan vara värda att ta vara på och de kan föra med sig saker man aldrig hade räknat med.



Kajsa Antonsson - Sammandrabbningar komponerades under hennes andra år på Gotlands Tonsättarskola inom ramen för samarbetet med Uppsala Kammarsolister. Overpressure-tekniken som används i början av stycket är inspirerat av ett verk som heter Petals, skrivet av Kaija Saariaho för solo cello och elektronik. Ett stort fokus i stycket är linjer som går isär och kommer samman.



Johan Ema - Haru no hana (vårblomma)

Ensam linje som vårens första blomma som sedan exploderar i ett hav av blommor för att sedan dö ut och försvinna som allt till slut gör. 



Julia Siljebo - Darkness, Light, Darkness 

Konceptuellt stycke baserat på Jan švankmajers kortfilm “Darkness, light, darkness” (Tma, světlo, tma). De tre satserna behandlar både filmens faktiska och det känslomässiga händelseförloppet genom gestaltning av objekt i relation till rum. 

Hans Tutschku, Remembering Japan – part 1

8 channel electroacoustic composition  

Duration: 9:48 min

“This is the first part of a series of compositions. In 2014 I spent three months in Japan, researching musical rituals, improvising with local musicians and recording countless sounds in temples, gardens, streets and nature. I'm aiming to create a sonic voyage by revisiting those recordings and by bringing spatially and temporally unrelated sonic scenes into the same room. The work is clearly based on Japanese culture while reflecting at the same time my own compositional preoccupations: polyphony, density, space and memory as structuring and formal principles.”

Hans Tutschku was born in Weimar in 1966. Some of his first experiences with electronic music came with the “Ensemble for Intuitive Music Weimar” of which he has been a member since 1982. He studied electronic music composition at the Dresden College of Music and, starting in 1989, participated in several of Karlheinz Stockhausen’s concert cycles to learn the art of sound direction. He continued his studies in sonology and electroacoustic composition at the Royal Conservatoire in the Hague (1991/92), followed by a year’s study at IRCAM in Paris (1994). In 1996 he participated in composition workshops with Klaus Huber and Brian Ferneyhough.

Hans Tutschku has taught electroacoustic composition as a guest professor in Weimar (1995/96); electroacoustic composition at IRCAM in Paris (1997–2001); and at the conservatory of Montbéliard (2001–2004). In May 2003 he completed a doctorate (PhD) with Professor Jonty Harrison at the University of Birmingham, and during the spring term of 2003 was the “Edgard Varèse Guest Professor” at the Technical University of Berlin. Since 2004, he is the Fanny P. Mason Professor of Music at Harvard University, where he teaches composition and works as director of the electroacoustic studios.

Besides his regular courses at the university, he is regularly teaching international workshops for musicians and non-musicians on aspects of art appreciation, listening, creativity, composition, improvisation, live-electronics and sound spatialization.

Hans Tutschku is the winner of many international composition competitions, including: Bourges, CIMESP Sao Paulo, Hanns Eisler Prize, Prix Ars Electronica, Prix Noroit, and Prix Musica Nova. In 2005 he received the culture prize of the city of Weimar. He held a Fellowship at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study for 2013, and a stipend from the Japan–U.S. Friendship Commission for 2014. In 2015 he received a commission from the Fromm Music Foundation. In 2017, his composition Remembering Japan won the first prize at the composition competition Klang!, as well as the first prize at the CIME ICEM competition; and he was awarded the ZKM Giga-Hertz production prize for ‚pressure-divided’.

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Clemens von Reusner, Definierte Lastbedingung

Definierte Lastbedingung (Defined Load Condition) is based upon the sound of electromagnetic fields generated by electrical equipment. Numerous recordings of electromagnetic fields were made at the Institute for Electrical Machines, Traction and Drives (IMAB) of the Technical University of Braunschweig, Germany, with a special microphone.

The recorded material has hardly any of what is otherwise typical for “musical“ sound. There is no spatial depth, nor any dynamics. In their identity as noise, the sounds are static, although they are internally mobile. They usually seem awkward, even hermetic such as the familiar humming of the mains. “Definierte Lastbedingung” (a technical term when testing electrical machines) works with these sounds using the resources of the electronic studio, in which they are examined in their structure and designed anew.

Spatialization: ambisonic 3rd order.

Definierte Lastbedingung featured as the German contribution to the World Music Days for New Music in Vancouver in 2017 and was nominated for the Prix Phonurgia in France in 2017.

Clemens von Reusner (b. 1957) is a composer and sound artist based in Germany, whose work is focused on electroacoustic music. He studied musicology and music-education – drums with Abbey Rader and Peter Giger. At the end of the 1980s development of the music software KANDINSKY MUSIC PAINTER.

Clemens von Reusner is a member of the German Composers' Society (Deutscher Komponistenverband, DKV), the German Society for New Music (Gesellschaft für Neue Musik, GNM) and of the German Society For Electroacoustic Music (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Elektroakustische Musik, DEGEM). He also worked as a curator and served as a jury member at international electroacoustic festivals.

He has been commissioned to compose works for radio and his compositions have received numerous international broadcasts and performances in Americas, Asia, Europe. Invitations to ISCM World New Music Days 2011, Zagreb , Croatia, and ISCM World New Music Days 2017, Vancouver, Canada.

www.cvr-net.de

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Brona Martin, NightEscape

“NightEscape is the first in a series of works that will explore the soundscape that surrounds Atlantic Center for the Arts, Florida where I have attended residencies with composers Jonty Harrison and Natasha Barrett. NightEscape explores a night-time soundscape using a field recording as the source material. Crickets dominate this field recording. I find the sound of crickets extremely relaxing and calming and their presence reinforces the fact that I am somewhere else, exploring and travelling because their sound to me is somehow exotic. I have restricted myself to using one night-time recording, which facilitates the exploration of this recording in detail. NightEscape was composed using a ring of 8 loudspeakers. The piece offers the listener time to immerse themselves in a meditative and calming soundscape, taking time out of busy schedules to pause, reflect and escape.”

This piece was composed at EMS, Stockholm, March 2018.

Brona Martin is an Electroacoustic composer and sound artist from Banagher, Co. Offaly, Ireland. Brona's research interests include narrative in Electroacoustic music, soundscape composition, acoustic communication and spatialisation. Her research explores metaphorical and real-world representations of diverse soundworlds, images and experiences, where the aim is to reveal particular sonic characters that are not normally the focus of listening. Brona's portfolio of works explore the layers and textures of sounds that contribute to the overall sonic-makeup of specific places both real and imaginary. Through listening, recording, analysing and processing, the layers of a soundworld are studied in great detail. Processing of these materials reveals the sonic qualities and the internal behaviour of specific sounds.

Brona's artistic portfolio offers an in depth and alternative listening perspective and experience where the complexity of everyday sounds are examined and rearranged into a new context. References are also made to the design of the acoustic environment where noise pollution often masks the more pleasant sounds of the natural environment.

Her acousmatic works composed in stereo, 5.1 and 8-channel have included the creative exploration of soundscapes from Ireland, Manchester, East Coast Australia, Spain and Germany. Her works have been performed internationally at EMS, ACMC, ICMC, NYCEMF, ISSTA, ZKM, BEAST, Balance/Unbalance, SSSP, iFIMPaC, Sonorities and MANTIS. Have a listen to some of her work here.

Brona is currently a Teaching Fellow in Composition at the University of Southampton.

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Erik Nyström, Textonics

‘Textonics’ is a word invented to allude to two defining aspects of texture in this work. The first is a reference to textons – micro-spatial constituents of texture – here shaped by irregular, incomplete fragments of synthesised sound. The second is tectonics – textures coagulate into dense masses like a ‘geomorphology’, and are layered vertically in the frequency spectrum, and distributed horizontally as overlapping fields. In this work, the two domains reflect a continuum between technology and nature, creating a material embodiment of information, in which no essences, basic elements, or purities exist. Unpolished, exposed, technological glitches are reframed as possibly physical, chemical, or biological, when the momentum of the music proposes a context of forces – an acousmatic place of digital, ‘postnatural physics’.

The piece was composed on the Game of Life 192 loudspeaker Wave Field Synthesis system in The Hague, The Netherlands, in 2017. This version is an eight-channel adaptation of the original WFS version.

Erik Nyström’s output includes live computer music, electroacoustic works, and sound installations. Most of his work is created for multichannel systems, and explores sound synthesis, spatial texture and algorithmic systems. He is currently Lecturer in Music at City, University of London, and was previously a Leverhulme Fellow at BEAST, Birmingham. He performs worldwide and his music has been published by empreintes DIGITALes.

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Annie Mahtani, Inversions – For Néle

Inversions began as a live improvisatory piece to be performed alongside Néle Azevedo’s Minimum Monument project in Birmingham 2014. Minimum Monument is an open-air exhibition displaying 5000 figures made of ice inverting the official canons of the monument as, in Azevedo’s words: “in the place of the hero, the anonym; in the place of the solidity of the stone, the ephemeral ice; in the place of the monumental scale, the minimum scale of the perishable bodies. Thousands of small sculptures of ice are placed in public space. The memory is inscribed in the photographic image and shared by everyone. It is no longer reserved to great heroes nor to great monuments. It loses its static condition to gain fluidity in the urban displacement and in the change of state of the water. It concentrates small sculptures of small men, the common men.”

The sound material was recorded during the exhibition’s two week creation period; an intensive production line of delicate sculpting, chiselling and freezing. The fragility of the solitary figures transform into a majestic army as the microscopic sounds of each sculpture multiply in their thousands.

Annie Mahtani is an electroacoustic composer, sound artist and performer working and living in Birmingham, UK. After completing her doctoral studies in composition in 2008 she has worked as a freelance composer, performer, curator and educator.

Her work encompasses electronic music composition from acousmatic music to free improvisation. As a collaborator, Annie has worked extensively with dance, theatre and on site-specific installations. With a strong interest in field recording, Annie’s work often explores the inherent sonic nature and identity of environmental sound, amplifying sonic characteristics that are not normally audible to the naked ear. Her music explores abstract and recognisable sound worlds and all the spaces in between. With a preoccupation with space, Annie works extensively with multichannel audio both in concert pieces and in live performance.

Annie is a Lecturer in Music at The University of Birmingham. She is co-director of SOUNDkitchen, a Birmingham based collective of curators, producers and performers of live electronic music and sound art.

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Jorge Gregorio García Moncada, Hüzün

“The word Hüzün, according to the turkish writer Orhan Pamuk is ‘meant to convey a feeling of deep spiritual loss. To the Sufis, hüzün is the spiritual anguish we feel because we cannot be close enough to Allah. […] We begin to understand hüzün as, not the melancholy of a solitary person, but the black mood shared by millions of people together […], of an entire city, of Istanbul’. The soundscape material presented in the piece was taken during the 2013 political turmoil I was able to witness during a shot term visit in the city.”

Jorge Gregorio García Moncada, PhD, is a full time faculty member of the Music Department at the Universidad de Los Andes in Bogotá, Colombia, focused in a diversity of teaching and research activities in the fields of music composition and theory. He is founder and director of the BLAST system – Bogotá, Los Andes Sound Theatre, a multichannel sound diffusion system for performance of electroacoustic and mixed media musical works. He is director of the SPECTRA international electroacoustic music festival, based in Bogotá and hosted by BLAST.

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Savannah Agger

Savannah Agger (*1971) is a composer and performer from Sweden, living in Berlin. Her work includes music for rock bands, jazz, orchestra, choir, chamber ensembles and primarily multichannel tape pieces, mixed music and interactive electronics. She has written concert pieces, as well as music for several theatre, new circus and contemporary dance performances.

www.savannahagger.com

The Russian composer Sofia Gubaidulina is one of the prominent musical voices of the past half a century. Her works are well loved worldwide for their introspective spirituality and innate sense of drama and development. The New European Ensemble presents two of her recent chamber works Sotto Voce (2010) and Repentence (2008). The guitar and double bass are among her favourite instruments and are featured prominently in both works. Sotto Voce for viola, bass and two guitars is built out of quasi-improvisatory materials derived from the interval of a minor second that traverses a wide range of textures. Repentence for cello, double bass and three guitars is a kind of cello concerto, with virtuosic and melodic cello writing supported by the rich harmonic chordal material in the guitars.