Hvorfor har du valgt at spille så mange uropførelser til en koncert?
På mit masterstudium har jeg tidligere arrangeret «Erik Nerheim Saxofonfestival 2012», hvor jeg afholdt 25 koncerter på tre dage. Dette var blandt andet et forsøg på at gøre noget spektakulært - men uden at det blev på bekostning af det musikalske indhold. Den koncert ville jeg gerne følge op på og valgte at sætte rekord i uropførelser. Koncerten på søndag med navnet «68 kompositioner» er også spektakulær, men har alligevel en musikalsk tyngde og et fokus: at det er muligt at formidle klassisk saxofon og samtidsmusik til et bredt publikum - uden at det bliver på bekostning af musikken.

Herudover er det også vigtig at forny litteraturen og altså blive ved med at bestille nykomponeret musik til saxofonen. Bare til denne koncert er saxofonrepertoiret blevet betragteligt udvidet. Det er vigtigt ikke bare at konservere men også at forny.

For mig er det interessant med en sådan slags «collagekoncert», der springer fra stil til stil og udtryk til udtryk - hvert eneste minut. Jeg har inviteret alle til at skrive, som havde lyst, så derfor er der også en grad aleatorik i projektet. Det synes jeg er spændende. Jeg satte en form på koncerten og inviterede folk til at fylde den med det, de havde lyst til, indenfor de rammer jeg havde sat (max 1 minut, for saxofon mm.). Jeg vidste ikke, hvad folk ville skrive eller i hvilken stil, og det har været umådeligt spændende at modtage værker og begynde at arbejde med dem. Jeg ville gerne lave noget kollektivt, hvor jeg ikke var eneansvarlig og alene havde kontrol med, hvordan udtrykket blev.

Værkerne er primært skrevet af nordiske komponister, hvorfor?
Bortset fra en komponist, er de alle nordiske eller studerer i et nordisk land. Hovedgrunden til dette er nok så enkelt som min kontaktflade og netværk, da jeg kender flere komponister i de nordiske lande. Da det i april gik op for mig, at jeg ville lave dette projekt, annoncerede jeg det på facebook, ligesom jeg skrev e-mails til komponister og musikere, som jeg kender. Det var ikke et mål, at det stort set udelukkende skulle være nordiske komponister, men sådan blev det, efterhånden som folk svarede tilbage.  

Mellem hvert værk, skal der ikke klappes. Er der ikke en fare for at det enkelte værk glider i baggrunden til fordel for én stor komposition? 
Det er selvfølgelig meget på grund af tid og koncertdramaturgi, at folk ikke skal klappe imellem hvert værk, men det er jo også for at understrege selve konceptet. Ofte er det 68 musikere som spiller én komponist. Her vender jeg det på hovedet: 68 komponister fremføres af én musiker. På en måde kan man sige, at magtforholdet mellem komponist og udøver er blevet byttet rundt. Det er jo klart, at hvert eneste værk, som er blevet leveret til mig til koncerten, har en værdi i sig selv, men samtidig bliver de også en del af et større værk – i dette tilfælde koncerten med den aktuelle udøver. Den røde tråd igennem alle kompositionerne på denne koncert er, at det bliver opført af mig. Hele koncerten, sat sammen af 68 etminutsværker, bliver jo også et stort musikværk, i tillæg til at koncerten og alt omkring den selvfølgelig bliver et konceptværk. Alle musikere i et orkester er selvfølgelig vigtige i sig selv, men de udgør også noget mere end kun sig selv, når de har funktionen af musiker i et orkester. For mig er der en pointe i at understrege denne problematik. 

Når alt dette er sagt, så er det vigtigt for mig at præcisere at alle de kompositioner, jeg har modtaget, er vældig gode, og har en stor værdi enkeltstående. Målet for koncerten er, at både den enkelte kompositioner og makrokompositionen kommer tydelig frem.

Koncerten er 2. juni kl. 19.00 i Lindemansalen,
Norges musikkhøgskole, Slemdalsveien 11. 

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Foto: Silje Måseide

in briefrelease
16.12.2024

A Riddle I Am Not the Right One to Solve

Abdullah Miniawy: »Nigma Enigma«
© PR
© PR

I believe I am not the right person to grapple with all the existential questions of faith and culture that the multidisciplinary artist and political experimentalist Abdullah Miniawy grapples with on his latest album, Nigma Enigma. The record is equal parts Arabic chant, folk music, and sound art, based on modular synths and field recordings. The Egyptian composer uses the album’s eleven abstractions as the soundtrack to what he himself calls »an Arabic opera of doubt and faith«. But as a non-Arab, lifelong atheist, it is difficult for this reviewer to fully engage with the big questions Miniawy poses in his mother tongue, while samples of crackling fires and layers of filtering create an otherwise enigmatic atmosphere that resonates well with the album’s title. As the music also functions as the soundtrack to an immersive video game, we are taken even further from familiar territory, given that the reviewer has not touched such things since Quakein 1992.

If one sets aside the search for meaning and allows oneself to be colored by the music’s immediacy, what emerges is a strongly conceptual, sonically accomplished work, in which Miniawy’s voice – most often chanting Arabic phrases from old folk songs – is interwoven with electronic noise. In particular, the transition from the beautiful two-part chanting on »Jayhano Al Kawahi« – with strong religious undertones – to the deeply anarchic noise vignette »Half a Year II«, featuring filtered sine tones and pounding bursts of bass noise, serves as an apt characterization of a minimalist piece of sound art.

Yet without being able to share Miniawy’s cultural and spiritual context, the album feels like a riddle I cannot solve. Like drinking an Irish coffee without the whiskey: the real praise is withheld. Nigma Enigma will speak to those who can relate to the spiritual and philosophical questions Miniawy raises, while others may experience it as a musical journey without fully understanding its destination.

English translation: Andreo Michaelo Mielczarek

in brieflive
14.12.2024

The Dust Would Not Settle on the Organs

Organ Sound Art Festival: Mads Emil Dreyer, Gamut inc., Aron Dahl & Mija Milovic
© www.francoadams.com
© www.francoadams.com

These days, Organ Sound Art Festival is taking place in its familiar setting at KoncertKirken, and yesterday marked the festival’s second day. The concert opened with revivals of Mads Emil Dreyer’s Vidder 1 and 4, along with a newly composed interlude for pump organ, house organ, keys, and bass flute – all instruments amplified. In this way, Dreyer obscured the sources of the sounds and created a beautiful interplay between the acoustic, the amplified, and the played-back. Was it the flute or the organ I was hearing? And did the sound come from an instrument or a loudspeaker? The music bore the mark of drone music, with beautiful dissonances and a tonal development that occasionally peeked through. Enchanting and compelling.

In the next performance, the German duo Gamut inc. had fitted the church organ with two robots, allowing a computer to control the instrument. Unfortunately, I was left wondering whether the robots were properly calibrated, or whether the music had been composed for a church space with significantly more reverberation. In any case, it sounded »MIDI-dead« – a bit like a silly »piano roll« video of an obscure serial work.

The duo Aron Dahl & Mija Milovic concluded the evening with music whose tenderness and honesty might recall The xx – if the British indie rock group were playing on out-of-tune house organs. Still, the music became somewhat monotonous, and their setup appeared underutilized.

The slightly mixed experience of the evening’s program does not change the fact that Organ Sound Art Festival is an atmospheric and ambitious festival that dares to take chances when presenting us with new works for an instrument that many still associate with bygone days. This Copenhagen-based festival is anything but dusty.

in brieflive
08.12.2024

The Perfect Conception of Perfect Love

toaspern-moeller: »Liebe«
© Kirsten Nijhof
© Kirsten Nijhof

Liebe is a performance in which everythingcomes together in a higher unity in a way one only rarely encounters. Even the ripples in the stage carpet, created by the performers’ imprints, are tender and electric to behold. The music is sparse and austere, like modernized Renaissance vocal music, while the dance is rooted in the traditional and is just as restrained and measured.

The two performers, Alma Toaspern and Mathias Monrad Møller – who also serve respectively as choreographer and composer – sing and dance alone on stage, while excerpts from the French writer Annie Ernaux’s recollections of an all-consuming infatuation and the desire for »perfect love« are projected onto the backdrop.

If I were to describe Liebe in a single word, it would be contrapuntal – a strict way of writing music with particular attention to how melodies in polyphony affect one another. It is astonishing how this otherwise old idea has been revitalized so convincingly. The material is carefully selected and thoroughly worked through – the music, scenography, lighting, and costumes felt like both the softest surprise and the most natural inevitability.

Møller’s and Toaspern’s meticulous synchronization, with no support beyond each other, is equally astonishing. The duo’s rigorous compositional strategy and uncompromising choreography are more than mere tools in a toolbox. They are part of an investigation of the erotic and the amorous: to be subjected, examined, and desired. Liebe is one of those performances one feels grateful to have experienced.

Katarina Gryvul. © Sam Clarke

»For me music is meditative chaos.«

Katarina Gryvul is a Ukrainian composer, violinist, music producer, and founder of Gryvul School. She emphasizes timbre as the primary element of form in her compositions. positioned between classical and electronic scenes, she has developed a unique way of composing that melds classical contemporary approaches with modern music technology. Gryvul works in the field of ambisonics and multichannel composition, utilizing live electronics for instruments and voice alongside analog modular synths. At the heart of her artistic vision lies the concept of duality, a theme intricately woven into every facet of her musical expression.

 

© Klaudia Krupa

»I can’t say what music is but I can say what music does: it is an experience, it travels through all my bodily senses, it brings energy (not only power but also tranquilizing and soothing, even peaceful energy); above all, it revives the memory of frozen moments, not unlike the scent of perfume, and yet it remains in the moment, the 'now' – in a recording a 'now' conserved from the past which we can relive whenever we press 'play' – and thus my playlist is a selection of moments related to person or event that was important to me.« 

Rei Nakamura is a pianist specialized in contemporary music. Her career has a wide range as solo pianist, ensemble player, improviser as well as writer. Through her on-going project Movement to Sound, Sound to Movement for piano and multimedia, she has worked in close collaboration with  composers as Annesley Black, Malin Bång, Christian Winther Christensen and Simon Steen-Andersen. Her observations and theoretical approaches are expressed in published texts in Neue Zeitschrift für Musik thematizing parallels in music, art and performance. 2021 she published the book Movement to sound, sound to Movement – Interpreting Multimedia Piano Compositions by Wolke Edition. As a Soloist she has premiered piano concertos with orchestras such as the SWR Symphonieorchester, WDR Synfonieorchester, RSO Berlin, Polish Nation Radio Symphony Orchestra and RAI National Radio Symphony Orchestra with conductor as Brad Lubman, Robert Treviño, Yaroslav Shemet, Michael Wendeberg and Bas Wiegers. She performed in Warsaw Philharmonic (Warsaw) and Arturo Toscanini Hall (Turin) and music festivals such as Eclat Festival Stuttgart, Ultraschall Berlin, Festival Acht Brücken Colon, MITO Festival (Turin), Warsaw Autumn (Poland) , Sound of Stockholm (Sweden), Monday Evening Concerts (USA).  She was was born in Japan, grew up in Brazil and is based in Germany.