Performative media-concert (WP)

Screams is a performative media-concert about the similarities and the essential emptiness of birth and death. Differences and transitions between word and silence; voice and language; tone, sound and noise are being de-constructed and merged together to a song »from the cradle to the grave«. In this experimental music-theatre work by Timo Kreuser for voice, accordeon and electronics the sound-production, the sound-conclusion and the visual image blend into one. Through extended instruments the musicians on stage can re-define at any time the relation between composition, interpretation and media realisation. Sound and visual image relate and correspond interactively.

Screams is a production of Ahab-Shipping Co.productions and Trackworkers Artists Collective and co-produced with the Electronic Studio of the Technical University of Berlin, faculty of Audio-communication.

Timo Kreuser, (composition & direction), Tora Augestad (voice), Camilla Barratt-Due (accordion " euphonic toilet), Wilm Thoben, (sound director), Hannah Dörr (video), Ida-Elisabeth Larsen, (dramaturge), Christof Belka (executive producer)

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An anthym against abuse

The Danish National Vocal Ensemble – one of the best choirs of the North – jointly with the Sonar Quartett frames the second part of the opening night. The composition Dixit Dominius of the Swedish composer Thomas Jennefelt (*1954) stands in the focus of the concert.

Abuses in the name of religion are a recurrent event in human history. What should be the path of love turns out to be the opposite, and at all times powerful people of different religions have promoted crusades against those who disagreed with them. We often encounter biblical texts in music without really paying attention to their message. But when the composer Thomas Jennefelt read Psalm 110 closely, he realised how full it is of hatred and violence. These thoughts about the violence of religions, both historically and now, have also led Jennefelt to examine Pope Urban II's speech at Clermont in France in the year 1095, the speech that launched the Christian Crusades. In this concert two different works based on the same text are set up in juxtaposition with each other. The Dixit Dominus from Claudio Monteverdi's famous Marian Vespers was written in 1610 and stands in contrast with Thomas Jennefelt's work based on the same text from 2010. The program is completed by parts of Joseph Haydn’s The Seven Last Words of Christ and Bent Sörensen’s string quartet Lady Shalott.

Danish National Vocal Ensemble und Sonar Quartett
Susanne Zapf (violin), Wojciech Garbowski (violin), Nikolaus Schlierf (viola), Cosima Gerhardt (cello), Marcus Hagemann (cello), Beltane Ruiz (double-bass), Magnus Andersson (lute), Olof Boman (conductor)

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Performative media-concert

Screams is a performative media-concert about the similarities and the essential emptiness of birth and death. Differences and transitions between word and silence; voice and language; tone, sound and noise are being de-constructed and merged together to a song from the cradle to the grave. In this experimental music-theatre work by Timo Kreuser for voice, accordeon and electronics the sound-production, the sound-conclusion and the visual image blend into one. Through extended instruments the musicians on stage can re-define at any time the relation between composition, interpretation and media realisation. Sound and visual image relate and correspond interactively.

Screams is a production of Ahab-Shipping Co.productions and Trackworkers Artists Collective and co-produced with the Electronic Studio of the Technical University of Berlin, faculty of Audio-communication.

Timo Kreuser, (composition & direction), Tora Augestad (voice), Camilla Barratt-Due (accordion " euphonic toilet), Wilm Thoben, (sound director), Hannah Dörr (video), Ida-Elisabeth Larsen, (dramaturge), Christof Belka (executive producer)

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New-music, Pop-music and choir-music

With the Nordic Night we invite you to join artists from the North and Berlin based ensembles to get acquainted with different aspects and sounds of music from Scandinavia and the neigbouring Nordic countries – Ranging from new music, pop and choir music to experimental sound-installations. The Danish National Vocal Ensemble willl perform rare works by this year’s jubilar Per Nørgård; the three musicians Linda Edsjö, Jennifer Dill and Randi Pontoppidan will guide you with flute, percussion, voice and electronics through Kaija Saariaho’s gardens. Lohn tells a tale of love in medieval Provençe, Noa Noa brings us a scent of Gaugin’s Polynesia, and Six Japanese Gardens presents the listener with the composer’s version of the gardens she saw in Kyoto. The famous viola player Garth Knox will join the Figura Ensemble to present a program involving a wide range of Nordic influences that channel old spirits into a contemporary framework. The Berlin based Ensemble Adapter presents for the first time S.L.Á.T.U.R., an experimental composers collective from Reykjavík, exploring their work from a traditional point of view. With animated computer graphics, self-made instruments or sounding objects the members independently explore their very own musical universe. The swedish post-folk collective Tula will close the night with their music of crystaline structure, shifting between alternating phases, which keeps you trapped in an atmosphere of agitated stasis, telling quiet tales on the lost and found.

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HALLE - SAARIAHO AND OTHER GARDENS

A musical journey through sounding gardens

The three musicians Linda Edsjö, Jennifer Dill and Randi Pontoppidan invite you to join them on a walk through Kaija Saarijaho’s wondrous garden. Lohn tells a tale of love in medieval Provençe, Noa Noa brings us a scent of Gaugin’s Polynesia, and Six Japanese Gardens presents the listener with the composer’s version of the gardens she saw in Kyoto. Each piece is an invitation for the musicians to enter a virtuoso game of hide and seek with processed sounds from instruments, voices and nature alike. In addition to Saariahos pieces, the musicians open a door to their own garden, a place where sound becomes music in the moment.

Linda Edsjö (percussion) Jennifer Dill (flute) Randi Pontoppidan (voice and electronics), Kaija Saariaho (composition)

HALLE - DANISH VOCAL ENSEMBLE

Nordic choir music

At the occassion of the 80 years birthday of Per Nørgård, the ensemble in residence, the Danish National Vocal Ensemble, presents rare works of the composer. Combined with traditional Nordic tunes and choir works of Bent Sørensen this concert draws a circle from the originals of vocal folk music to the actual choir music of the Nordic countries. The sung word has a long tradition in Nordic music. True to that tradition young composers continue to add new works to the existing repertoire. First in line comes Per Nørgård, one of the greatest living Nordic composers, who defines this genre for the last decades. To honnor his birthday we will present rare works from his oeuvre for choir. The concert is a co-production with the Danish Radio / DR.

Danish National Vocal Ensemble, Olof Boman (conductor)

STUDIO A - ADAPTER PLAYS S.L.Á.T.U.R.

creative meets progressive

S.L.Á.T.U.R. is a collective of experimental composers from Reykjavik, Iceland. With animated computer graphics, self-made instruments or sounding objects the members independently explore their very own musical universe. The German-Icelandic Ensemble Adapter presents these pioneers of Icelandic music in Berlin for the first time, exploring their work from a traditional point of view.

Ensemble Adapter
Kristjana Helgadóttir (flute), Ingólfur Vilhjálmsson (clarinet), Gunnhildur Einarsdóttir (harp), Matthias Engler (percussion)

HALLE - FIGURA ENSEMBLE

Tracks and Traces

Figura Ensemble presents a program that draws on a wide range of Nordic influences when it channels old spirits into a contemporary framework. Peter Bruun and Ursula Andkjær Olsen´s Old Danish folk songs are telling tales of lovelorn young women. These re-invented folk songs treat beautifully and cleverly the accentuated, wistful, forlorn words. The calm and peaceful Kronologi from Norwegian Lars Petter Hagen - Its moody, spacious and bittersweet atmosphere reflects the stretched sense of time during long, cold winters. Figura´s violaplayer Garth Knox stretches the North beyond Scandinavia to Scotland with two charming and impish pieces and frames the sensual poems of the French surrealist Paul Eluard put into music by Per Nørgård.

Figura Ensemble
Ursula Andkjær Olsen (texts), Peter Bruun (composition), Jesper Egelund (double-bass), Helene Gjerris (mezzo-soprano), Frans Hansen (percussion), Anna Klett (clarinet), Garth Knox (viola)

STUDIO A - ADAPTER PLAYS S.L.Á.T.U.R.

creative meets progressive

S.L.Á.T.U.R. is a collective of experimental composers from Reykjavik, Iceland. With animated computer graphics, self-made instruments or sounding objects the members independently explore their very own musical universe. The German-Icelandic Ensemble Adapter presents these pioneers of Icelandic music in Berlin for the first time, exploring their work from a traditional point of view.

Ensemble Adapter
Kristjana Helgadóttir (flute), Ingólfur Vilhjálmsson (clarinet), Gunnhildur Einarsdóttir (harp), Matthias Engler (percussion)

SAAL - TULA

Post-Folk from Sweden

Watching Tula cherishing their fields of sound is an enlightening experience. Music of crystaline structure, shifting between alternating phases, keeps you trapped in an atmosphere of agitated stasis, telling quiet tales of the lost and found. When watching Tula perform, tunes are sneaking in; building structures and taking over almost completely - but just almost before turning and regressing to where they came from. The band has relocated in Berlin about two years ago. Tulas interest in remote natures of sound makes the band approach song-writing and concerts in a cautious and very sensitive way: there is an organic and dynamic play with expectations and a gradual extrications of melodies and rhythms. There is something very visual about their sound – luring the audience onto a warm yet unexpected journey with its deep dramaturgy.

Tula
Fanny Risberg (vocals), August Zachrisson (guitar), Andreas Dzialocha (bass), Nikolai Petersen (drums), Simon Meyer (keyboards)

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Family composing and get together

The Nordic brunch is meant to be a calm oasis where the artists, partner organisers and producers can meet, network and share ideas. Besides presenting an interesting musical programme, this event is central to the festival since it’s a platform for getting to know each other even more, developing new collaboration projects and just give the soul a breather on the terrace of Radialsystem V by the river Spree. There will be a composers workshop for the kids and their families included, the results will be performed in the end of the workshop.

Figura Ensemble, Peter Bruun, Jesper Egelund

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