22.05.2013

5 korte til Anders Beyer

Til de der ikke kender Bergen festspillene, hvordan vil du kort karakterisere dens særpræg i forhold til andre festivaler?
Beyer: Festspillene er stor og med 232 produktioner i 2013 større end de fleste festivaler, som har fokus på musik, teater, dans med mere. Det interessante for mig ved at arbejde med denne festival er, at den både er bred og smal, båret af stolte traditioner og samtidig vildt eksperimenterende. En undersøgelse fra 2008 viser, at 86% af Norges befolkning kender Festspillene, og en undersøgelse fra 2010 viser, at 97% af befolkningen i Bergen/Hordaland kender festivalen. Arkivet for Festspillene i Bergen er netop blevet optaget i det nyoprettede og eksklusive register «Norges Dokumentarv».

Vi taler med andre ord om en festival, som i nordmændenes egen selvforståelse har betydet noget for Norge som nation. Hele byen er i undtagelsestilstand i 15 dage, og du er nødt til at være her, hvis du vil opleve det nye fødes og det gamle tolket af verdens bedste udøvere. Med et generøst budget og en række fantastiske støttespillere, kan vi gennemføre omfattende og komplicerede projekter, som andre ikke har administrative og økonomiske muskler til at realisere. Hvis du f.eks. samler alle vores ny musikaktiviteter i år, vil du se, at der er tale om ikke så få produktioner, faktisk en hel festival i festivalen.

Hvad ser du frem til som festivalens højdepunkter?
Beyer: Jeg synes, at alle vores produktioner er interessante. Mens jeg skriver disse linjer (tirsdag den 21. red.), lyder en flot musik fra Festpladsen, hvor Phase7 prøver på den spektakulære event i morgen aften, hvor nye electronica beats, 300 syngende børn og unge, lurspillere og 35 lysende helikoptere svæver over byen. Før dette har vi haft premiere i Grieghallen på operaen Marco Polo af Tan Dun, som bliver en billedstorm og vokal og musikalsk eksotisme og ekvilibrisme. Det nyskabende sker ikke mindst på teaterområdet, og der har vi bl.a. verdenspremiere på Coelacanth af Alan Lucien Øyen. Det er en fem timer lang forestilling, som på alle måder er stort tænkt. Listen er lang over produktioner, jeg gerne vil nævne, måske det er bedre at invitere læserne inden for på www.fib.no – så kan de selv gå på opdagelse i vores tre indgange til programmet: Fornøjelser, forbindelser og forstyrrelser.

Hvad er årets kunstneriske sats?
Beyer: Festspillene har tradition for at satse på unge talenter. Det er på denne festival, at Leif Ove Andsnes, Vilde Frang, Christian Ihle Hadland har fået deres kunstneriske kickstart. Vi har en nordisk solistkonkurrence for unge talenter, og vi har fokus på talentudvikling i bredeste forstand. Bergen er en ung by, en tiendedel af befolkningen er studerende på universitetet. Det er vildt spændende at tænke nye projekter med dem. Fremtidens publikum vil vi gerne nå, derfor har vi et omfattende børn- og ungeprogram. Vi har et stort, loyalt kernepublikum, som forventer klassisk musik i verdensklasse, og dette publikumssegment skal vi ikke skuffe. Festivalen er såkaldt ”knudepunktsfestival”, dvs. vi skal være motor i hele regionen og gerne i hele landet i forhold til at dele ud af vores kompetencer og netværk, vi skal arbejde mangfoldigt, med publikumsudvikling og vise Bergen som ledende kulturby. Vi arbejder i festivalen med stor virkelyst og energi for at fastholde og udbygge denne position som ledende festival i Norden på musik- og teaterområdet.

Hvordan differentierer festivalen sig fra sidste års festspil?
Beyer: Vi har gennemført en institutionel turn-around, og er flyttet til nye lokaler. Vi har en ny strategi, nyt visuel profil og grafisk design. Vi arbejder målrettet med nye former for markedsføring, inkludering og udnyttelse af ny teknologi. Når din ambition er at rebrande en så tung og betydningsfuld institution med 61 års historie, er du nødt til at tage nogle tydelige greb i forhold til form, indhold og formidling. Du kan ikke nøjes med at flytte en lille brik i et hjørne. Du skal ville chokere.

I hvilken retning ønsker du Bergen Festspillene bevæger sig i løbet af de næste fem år?
Beyer: Den 61-årige dame skal blive endnu mere ungdommelig, farlig og uforudsigelig.

På billede er Annar Follesø, taget af fotografen: Dag Thorenfeldt

playlist

02.11

We are Girls in Airports – would you like to see our playlist?

»Like all art, music is a language for emotions, dreams, and the search for meaning—but for us it is just as crucial that music is a path to community.«

Girls in Airports is a Danish instrumental band with a palette that draws in particular on jazz, electronic music, and sounds from distant horizons. Since their debut album in 2010, they have created a sonic universe in which saxophones, synths, and pulsating grooves meet in a collective and dreamlike expression. Recently, the band has focused on artistic collaborations with, among others, Teitur and Aarhus Jazz Orchestra, and they are now on their way with a new album created in collaboration with the string trio Halvcirkel.

playlist

30.10

My name is Steen Andersen – would you like to see my playlist?

»Music, to me, is the lifeline to the world that more than anything else creates emotional resonance and fills my head with confetti of thought.«

Steen Andersen is a cultural entrepreneur, festival manager, and writer. He is a co-founder of Lost Farm Festival and has coordinated projects such as Copenhagen and Odden Sauna Festival, the collective workspace PB43, the cultural venue BYGN 5, and Prags Have. Over the years, he has written books and articles on urban activism, entrepreneurship, and culture, including Byen bliver til and Learning from Sierra Leone together with Architects Without Borders, which won the Danish Architectural Association’s Initiative Award. He is currently based in Ukraine, where he is coordinating Lost Farm Festival’s Art Exchange Program, and has just curated the exhibition HIDE and SEEK with young Ukrainian artists in Kyiv.

in brieflive

29.10

Islands Of Sound Rising From the Sea

Athelas Sinfonietta: »Nordic Sounds«

Nordatlantens Brygge, 25.10

Andrew Mellor

Veroníque Vaka’s ongoing project to pin some of earth’s most momentous geological processes down in notated music is proving beguiling. The latest fruit was premiered on Saturday at Nordatlantens Brygge. Eyland (»Island«) was inspired by the formation of the island of Surtsey, which appeared 33km of Iceland’s coast on 14 November 1963 following a volcanic eruption.

Much of the Canadian-Icelandic composer’s work charts decline; its musical movement tracing harvested data around ecological destruction and decay. Eyland is about creation, and Vaka seemed to revel in the wonder and grandeur of it. The 15-strong Athelas Sinfonietta sounded with the sweep of a symphony orchestra under Bjarni Frímann and Jónas Ásgeir Ásgeirsson’s solo accordion like the emergent island itself, edging up from the spray with magnificent, slow force.

Some of the other five pieces in this concert focusing on music of the North Atlantic could feel like a ritualistic preparation for Vaka’s – a testament to the composers’ focus more than their lack of weight. Around the clear long lines of Eli Tausen a Láva’s Álvan are distinctive North Atlantic sparkle and harmonic depth; Daníel Bjarnason’s Skelja is a miniature sonic romance between harp and percussion and Friðrik Margrétar-Guðmundsson's Fikta a smudged chorale, played with shamanistic intensity by Ásgeirsson. Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s Entropic Arrows focused the mind with its threading of long string tendrils from out of frantic wind and percussion action.

The other premiere was Aya Yoshida’s Song of the Voice – a non-vocal echo of the Faroese song tradition for cello and ensemble in which, at one point, you hear a chain-dance ratcheting round. The work is not without some imagination and effectiveness, but it was made to sound incoherent and unfocused by what surrounded it here.

in brieflive

29.10

What Do the Mad Want With an Opera House?

OperaHole: »screen (mad scenes)«

The Lab Cph, 25.10

Sune Anderberg

Denmark is lacking opera houses, a recent call in Politiken declared. And indeed: with only a single major, rather conservative opera house, we don’t quite make our mark on the grand stage. On the other hand, we can boast a flourishing opera life on the stages outside the established institutions. And with the Copenhagen music collective OperaHole, a new player has now entered the field.

Last week, the two singers and artistic directors Litha Ashforth and Daniel Rosenberg, both raised in the United States, presented OperaHole’s first production: a kind of surprise egg consisting of Rosenberg’s own character study recursion for two actors, the mad scene from Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, and Peter Maxwell Davies’ 8 Songs for a Mad King – all three performed in one continuous flow in a white commercial film studio.

What was interesting, of course, was the juxtaposition of a short play, a classical scene, and one of the most abrasive monodramas of the last 60 years. The thematic common denominator was madness: Rosenberg, a so-called spieltenor with a wide range and comic talent, first skewered devilish variations of latte-drinking Copenhageners in his play, before coloratura soprano Ashforth slipped in wearing a white chemise soaked in blood and sang Donizetti with nimble desperation and a soft sweetness, accompanied by flute and piano.

Finally came the monodrama with Rosenberg as the mad king, staged as a social-media workshop in which the performance was commented on in a livestream (LeaHan1997: »Not this again«!) and screenshots were pasted together into memes in real time. It was spirited – musically as well – but insular, and the work itself disappeared in the process.

Once the collective’s youthful enthusiasm for new media has settled, OperaHole nevertheless looks like a strong contender to carry on our tradition of playful underground opera.

English translation: Andreo Michaelo Mielczarek

in briefrelease

24.10

JASSS Tears the Cellophane Off Electronic Music

JASSS: »Eager Buyers«

AWOS, 19.09

Mira Siegel

The sound of Eager Buyers is as intense as crackling cellophane – and just as revealing. It’s as if all musical labels have been stripped away, leaving behind a raw, unfiltered sonic world where genres dissolve and everything becomes possible. The Berlin-based Spanish producer JASSS forges her sound in a punkish alloy of electronic music, industrial, EDM, and rock-inspired guitar riffs.

Her third album is a rebellion against conformity and expectation. To label JASSS is nearly impossible – unless the label is cool. In the complex rhythmic compositions, where traces of bitcrush are balanced by melancholic harmonies and subtle hints of medieval-core on the track »Sand Wrists«, we enter a universe that is at once nostalgic and adventurous – and at the same time simmering with the energy of Berlin’s nightlife.

Eager Buyers is magnetic – even for listeners who don’t normally inhabit the electronic realm. The album carries a clear narrative, driven by a dark, almost theatrical energy. JASSS turns toward a world she perceives as »malnourishing« – as she phrases it through song titles like »Hollow« and »The Mob Expects Malnutrition«. Yet the melodrama has a tinge of irony: there’s something disarmingly sarcastic about it all, as if Eager Buyers is ultimately about the disillusioned modern human.

JASSS rattles the cellophane of the musical packaging we usually call genres, reminding us that music, too, is a product to be sold and bought. Eager Buyers is an album that refuses to be wrapped up – and precisely for that reason, it’s worth buying.

English translation: Andreo Michaelo Mielczarek