‘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

»An opera you need to see twice«

A generational cycle of sexual abuse paired with a clear and lucid score. Last year’s operatic talk of the town, Louise Alenius’ ‘Silent Zone’, was back for one day, presenting both limitations and intense dramatic focus.

Mona Alenius Kaniewski. © Ólafur Steinar Gestsson/Copenhagen Opera Festival

ByAndrew Mellor

Lullabies and memory loss

It’s the opening concert of Klang Festival 2018. Everyone is paying close attention, preparing to discuss the music afterwards. But listening is no simple task – what’s it all about? Professor Holger Schulze, author of ‘The Sonic Persona – An Anthropology of Sound’, takes us through his listening experience.

ByHolger Schulze