‘I need to believe it myself’

As a performer, Ragnhild May has a chameleon-like way of creating characters that makes it possible to adapt her works to different situations. James Black invites her to a yoga class in this final interview with young ‘composer/performers’.

ByJames Black

It’s hard to think of a better introduction to the world of Ragnhild May than her web shop.

On arrival, we’re greeted with a standard-looking selection of merchandise – towels, tote bags, socks – arranged in a basic web shop layout.

The model – May herself – exhibits the goods with a series of friendly grimaces emanating from a mouth with braces. The merchandise is embellished with slogans such as ‘Performance without Compromise’, ‘Art 4 U’, and ‘Always Good Art’.

So, this is where it all ends

For his second interview with young ‘composer/performers’ James Black takes Bára Gísladóttir bowling. Her music and stage presence share a captivatingly introvert, yet apocalyptic, quality that seems like more than a mere artistic approach. In Gísladóttir’s view, the apocalypse is a given.

ByJames Black

Icelandic composer and double bassist Bára Gísladóttir’s compositions and performances have all the surface trappings of 21st-century avant-garde music. We find an aversion to ‘traditional’ harmony and melody, a strong preference for extended techniques, and a focus on sound-exploration that pathologically avoids standard structures.

But I have always felt that there is more to Gísladóttir’s writing than a succession of scratchy tam-tam noises and oboe multiphonics; something that can only be understood by uncovering the music through the person – through the composer/performer – rather than the other way around.

‘It’s almost like I can feel the whole world’

In this first of three interviews with young ‘composer/performers’ James Black goes climbing with Marcela Lucatelli. Her powerful onstage presence suggests a connection to something with very deep roots.

ByJames Black

Deep in the Norwegian forest

A 13-hour immersive performance on a freezing winter night outside Oslo – Knut Olaf Sunde’s site-specific work ‘Himdalen’ radically challenged traditional concert practices.

Knut Olaf Sunde: ‘Himdalen’. © Henrik Beck Kæmpe

ByRose Dodd

Not so diverse after all

The 2018 Nordic Music Days in Helsinki branded itself on a notion of diversity oddly isolated from gender and other social dimensions. It was all about the stylistic width, according to the artistic director. From the point of view of a participating electro-acoustic composer, however, the festival fell short on this ambition, too.

ByTine Surel Lange

Man among the machines

Ever since he was a teenager, Kaj Duncan David’s music has been intimately linked with software and machines. His next major work will use artificial intelligence as both a method and a subject.

ByAndrew Mellor

Gold fever and infernal machines

Simon Løffler’s personality shines through in Ensemble Adapter’s portrait concert while Niels Lyhne Løkkegaard’s conceptual gold piece rings hollow at Gong Tomorrow.

ByJames Black

Try competing with history, then

A contemporary music festival, especially one with a remarkable history, might be judged by its ability to free itself from the pressures of tradition. In that respect, Warsaw Autumn is becoming a victim of its own success.

Trond Reinholdtsen: ‘Ø – Episode 6’. © Grzegorz Mart

ByJames Black

Maybe we fight, maybe we defend

The 2018 edition of the annual UNM festival for young composers displayed a somewhat defensive group of artists. Are commercial demands finally beginning to influence contemporary music in the Nordic countries? James Black writes from Bergen, Norway.

Alex Mørch: ‘Beta-Hex’. © Tine Surel Lange

ByJames Black

Memorials of grief: Music after 9/11

The most incomprehensible aspect of September 11 may well have been the aftermath, a time when suddenly nothing made sense. Tim Rutherford-Johnson on the musical responses to the 2001 terrorist attacks.

ByTim Rutherford-Johnson