La Mer & Parasite Village
Two projects realised this month: La Mer, with choreography by Nanine Linning and visuals by Heleen Blanken at the Boston Ballet. I’ve made some soundscapes inspired by Debussy that sit alongside La Mer and aim to disrupt the nostalgic notion of the sea. Premiere April 6th in Boston Opera House and running for about 10 shows thereafter.
Later in the month, Parasite Village in Dresden between the 24th and 30th April, where I will be playing in a new ensemble set up by Elisa Erkelenz called Future Tradition Orchestra featuring an amazing cast of musicians from around the world.
Including: Cymin Samawatie, Keyvan Chemirani, Muhammed Muaz Ceyhan, Ravshan Tukhtamishev, Chang,Sofiya Levchenko, Neva Özgen Kösoğlu, Naoko Kikuchi, Bassem Alkhouri, Susanne Fröhlich, Cham Saloum, Milian Vogel, Ralf Schwarz, Emil Kuyumcuyan, Ulrich Mertin and others. As well as playing electronics in the ensemble I’ve written a new generative interactive score called ‘The Island Remained Silent’.
UMVA!, Maze and Black Pencil CD
At the beginning of the month, I had the pleasure of being involved as musical director for a new piece by Aurelie Lierman called UMVA! A production by Silbersee that premiered in Bruges Concertgebouw, and will tour NL later in the year. It’s a personal work by Aurelie about her grandfather in the Rwandan countryside which includes a great cast of performers, playing around a binaural head which is experienced by the audience with headphones. A performative radioplay.
Later in the month (Sunday 19th) a concert with Ensemble Maze and BUI in Utrecht at their HQ, the old nuclear bunker, ‘onderbuik’. We played Alvin Lucier’s Memory Space, as we did in Splendor last year, notating a live score simultaneously with the whole group. Variations IV by John Cage, travelling through the bunker, while recording ourselves on personal audio devices, then leaving them playing back in a pile all together. We also played Anne La Berge’s Assail, first time since we premiered it about 5 years ago.
About one week after saw the release of Ensemble Black Pencil’s CD: Into Space where they present the commissions of new works from the Flevoland Land Art projects. Pieces by Calliope Tsoupaki, Arnoud Nordegraaf, Aart Strootman, Meriç Artaç Florian Magnus Maier and Florence Anna Maunders. My piece on the CD was Observatory based on Robert Morris’s magical construction Observatorium, which was premiered there June 2022 on Summer solstice. The ensemble played the piece on 3 occasions as part of the launch including in the Amstelkerk, Amsterdam (22nd March)
Anomia at the Andriessen Festival
February culminated at the Andriessen Festival in Music, Arnhem (25th Feb) where I had three performances on the same day, a late-night set with Andy Moor, the Dutch Premiere of Elsewhere, played by Laura Sandee and Aljosja Buijs, and the world premiere of a new piece Anomia. This was written for RKST21 the extended formation of Orkest de Ereprijs conducted by Clark Rundell and featuring soprano Kristia Michael, with photographs by Johannes Schwartz. Very happy with how it all went.
Amiandos CD
January saw the release of Amiandos, my first solo electronic music release since Resorts and Ruins. Also with a Cyprus theme, it’s a collection of 7 pieces based on the asbestos mine in Cyprus where my grandfather worked as an engineer. Some nice reviews overall including the best of contemporary classical list on Bandcamp for January.