Under temaet EPIPHANY har den aarhusianske festival for ny musik og lydkunst, SPOR, offentliggjort det fulde program for sin 2017-udgave.

Det engelske ord "epiphany" kan bedst oversættes til dansk som åbenbaring, men dækker også over manifestationer af noget overnaturligt eller magisk. På SPOR 2017 udforsker man gennem temaet små fortryllelser, der er i clinch med hverdagen.

Det kommer i programmet til udtryk gennem forskellige situationer, der erobrer de rum, hvori hverdagslivet udspiller sig og kaster nyt lys over de mønstre og rutiner, som knytter sig til det daglige liv.

»Eksempelvis laver Ea Borre og Sandra Boss et værk, som tager udgangspunkt i en kendt situation – en gademusikant, som sidder og spiller – det er noget man bumper ind i, når man er i sit almindelige hverdagsliv. Men de vender, drejer og strækker det, så de ender med noget, som bliver en lille bobbel af magi, som både har den her kendte hverdagslige følelse, men som samtidig sætter sig fuldstændigt ud over den«, forklarer den ene af festivalens kunstneriske ledere Anne Marqvardsen.

Værket hedder Sustained Effort og gør brug af en akkordeon-lignende lydskulptur af ekstreme fysiske proportioner, der bliver en del af en offentlig performance i Aarhus' byrum.

Ligeledes laver den polske komponist, performer og kunstner Jagoda Szmytka en syv dage lang performance, hvor hun bor i et udstillingsrum til frit skue for offentligheden. Og således bidrager programmet på forskellig vis med små performative, der rummer åbenbaringer.

»Der er en meget stærk personlighed i årets tema og i de værker og kunstnere, som er blevet inviteret indenfor, og som er blevet udvalgt. Det, der generelt kendetegner SPOR er, at der altid er en ret stram kuratering og tematik, som tegner festivalen rigtigt meget, uanset om vi gør det solo, eller om vi gør det sammen med en gæstekurator. Vi inviterer ikke bare de kunstnere og ensembler ind, der alligevel turnérer i maj måned«, pointerer Anne Marqvardsen.

SPOR er født med idéen om at have en ny kurator hvert år. I 2007 var det Anne Marqvardsen og Anna Berit Asp Christensen, der vandt kuratorkonkurrencen. Året efter indtrådte de som festivalens direktører og har siden givet kuratorstafetten videre til vægtige danske komponister som Bent Sørensen og Simon Steen-Andersen, til udenlandske udfordrere som Joanna Bailie og Jennifer Walshe eller fællesskaber som f.eks. det belgiske Nadar Ensemble, der kuraterede festivalen sidste år. Men på tiåret for deres debut kurateres festivalens program atter af direktørparret Marqvardsen og Christensen.

»EPIPHANY er også et tema og en overskrift, der relaterer sig personligt til det arbejde vi selv har haft med festivalen. Det er vores tiende festival i år, og på en måde tror jeg der ligger en grundforståelse for os begge to af, at vi har arbejdet så utroligt eksperimenterende med den her festival, og vi har valgt at lave så mange ting, som var ukontrollérbare og uden at vide, hvad det ville ende med. Det har affødt de her bittesmå åbenbaringer eller magiske ting, som vi ikke kunne være sikre på. Så der ligger også noget personligt i det tema i forhold til, hvordan vores egen rejse har været med den her festival gennem 10 år«, fortæller Anna Berit Asp Christensen.

Efter at have vokset sig til den institution, den er i dag, har SPOR kræfter til at realisere flere og mere ambitiøse tiltag. Det afspejler sig eksempelvis i projekter som SPOR New Music School, hvor der under festivalen de seneste to år er blevet komponeret samtidsmusik og lydkunst af musikskoleelever på 11-15 år. Men festivalens udvikling ses også i musikprogrammet:

»Alt, hvad der er på programmet, er noget vi holder af på en helt særlig måde, og som betyder rigtig meget for os. Men der er ingen tvivl om, at jeg er rigtig stolt over, at vi i år kan præsentere en meget stor Manos Tsangaris-produktion. Han er en utrolig anerkendt figur på ny-musik-scenen i hele Europa, og man har aldrig haft en Tsangaris-produktion i det format før i Danmark«, afslutter Anna Berit Asp Christensen.

SPOR finder sted i Aarhus 8-14. maj på forskellige lokationer i Aarhus.

Læs mere på festivalens hjemmeside.

in briefrelease
07.02.2025

The Sinister Mastery of Shame

Ethel Cain: »Perverts«
© Silken Weinberg
© Silken Weinberg

To describe American Ethel Cain’s (Hayden Silas Anhedönia) stylistic shift from her debut Preacher’s Daughter (2022) to Perverts as an extreme U-turn would almost be an understatement. The distance from the debut’s gothic lo-fi pop to this monstrous work – combining dark ambient, noise, and dystopian ballads – is vast, all the while continuing Cain’s familiar reckoning with her religious upbringing and her struggle for sexual liberation.

On paper, Perverts is an EP running 89 minutes, but it feels like far more than that. Crushing noise drones, dusty piano strikes, and distant preacher voices from crackling radios are woven together with acoustic spaces. And although the record also contains more conventional ballads such as »Punish« and the beautiful »Vacillator« – which even features a clearly defined rhythmic progression – it is the long, epic ambient tracks that draw the listener into the often harrowing darkness.

One thing is that Cain suddenly makes dark ambient; another is just how good she is at it. Perverts is not only a profoundly unsettling insight into the friction between sexuality and religious fanaticism, but also an immediate, creative, and fully realized homage to a fascinating niche genre. A necessary album for anyone unafraid of the dark.

in briefrelease
04.02.2025

The Deep Breath

Blaume: »excess air«

The Copenhagen-based duo Blaume’s EP excess air is a field study in the shared pulse of breathing, calmly taking a deep breath. The EP’s airy sound unfolds cyclically from the physical conditions of respiration, and with hoarse choral voices and chirping flute, the two artists – Laura Zöschg (IT) and Mette Hommel (DK) – wind their way around the healing and artistic qualities of breath.

Perhaps it is the strangely warm winter or the blooming figures on the cover, but excess air seems to carry a fragile sense of spring. The sparse instrumentation gropes its way forward improvisationally across the three tracks, and the many choral voices add a tangible physical sense of musicians at work, underscoring a feeling of tentative sprouting.

The electronic element, in the form of vocal effects and the music software Ableton, is an important part of Blaume’s expression. Vocal effects often come across as quite prominent, but when the processed voice on the track »vivus tremus« drifts into a hoarse rasp, the artificial divide between voice and effect dissolves, and the electronic becomes an obvious extension of Blaume’s shared breath.

Blaume’s excess air is a delightfully vital EP. It is music with the surplus energy to stretch far from a simple and immediate point of departure, and with a few simple means, Blaume’s debut emerges as a welcome harbinger of spring.

© Ellie Brown

»Music for me is: inevitable.« 

Ryong is a composer, artist & DJ that explores: Danish and Korean heritage, spirituality, embodiment, family and love, Ryong is also a member of the experimental pop band haloplus+. Across her releases, she draws on both ambient, noise and pop music, incorporating the sound of field recordings and spoken word. Having previously released on Why Be’s label Yegorka, and debuting on Posh Isolation with Isa Ryong, an 11 part work that explores transition and the anguish of complexity, Ryong has established herself as a unique artist in the experimental electronic music scene in Copenhagen.
 

in briefrelease
26.01.2025

She Makes the Music Vibrate Like a Living Organism

Astrid Sonne: »Great Doubt« 
© PR
© PR

When I first listened to the Danish violist, singer, and producer Astrid Sonne’s new album, Great Doubt, I honestly wasn’t quite sure what to make of it. I immediately noticed how extraordinary Sonne’s viola sounds on the album – such a powerful presence that it almost feels like a deeply complex living organism, breathing, feeling, and moving dramatically through the album’s nine songs.

My favourite track was without a doubt »Almost«, where Sonne’s fragile, subtly intense voice is accompanied solely by the viola’s minimalist pizzicato melody, which reminds me of a forgotten composition from Japanese new age pioneer Hiroshi Yoshimura’s masterpiece Green.

On most of the tracks, however, voice and viola are also joined by electronic rhythms, piano chords, and synth figures which, in contrast to the viola’s organic, vibrating sound, initially struck me as almost plastically artificial. To me, it sounded as if the viola and the electronics were being transmitted from two very different universes, unable to fully coexist. There was something about the contrast that felt slightly… uncanny.

Yet with repeated listens, everything begins to make sense. Sonne’s coolly understated voice is the glue that binds the entire soundscape together, as if it itself exists in the porous space between the viola’s raw natural force and the electronics’ tamed purity. I like it more and more – and perhaps I may even come to love it. Great Doubt is an album that, despite its modest running time of just 26 minutes, demands immersion and reflection – and ultimately rewards the listener for it.

© PR

»Music for me is a highway hotel. Open 24 hours a day. There are no receptionists, and you are not given keys. You wander sleepily around the hotel's many corridors, from door to door. Some doors are ajar, others you have to pry open. Behind them all are rooms. Some are sparsely furnished, others are filled to the brim with dancing people. You can stay in there for a few minutes. Some rooms you return to. Many are a bit boring, others almost knock you over. What I like most is the ones I can't really orient myself in. The rooms where I have doubts about what is floor and what is wall. And what the furniture is actually used for. All the rooms fit together. You leave the hotel and drive on along the highway of life. A different person than when you arrived.« 

Anders Søgaard is a poet and professor of artificial intelligence and philosophy at the University of Copenhagen. He has written eleven books and more than 300 research articles. He has three children and lives in a housing community in Roskilde.