Sixth Edition: Ellen Arkbro + Kristofer Svensson

Sunday 19 March 2023 • 7pm

Sold Out.

Closing concert for the festival in the gorgeous, surreal setting of Confidencen — an 18th century rococo theatre. Two premieres: Kristofer Svensson’s Som regn for harpsichord performed by Daniel Walden and a new piece by Ellen Arkbro commissioned by the festival for a 11 piece ensemble including musicians from Berlin’s Harmonic Space Orchestra. This newly commissioned work is part of a glorious expansion of the palette she first set with For Organ & Brass opening up her primary material of in-tune chords to include improvisation and other compositional strategies.

PERFORMERS

Daniel Walden harpsichord

Lucy Railton cello
Judith Hamman cello
MO Abbott bass trombone
Rebecca Lane bass flute
Michiko Ogawa bass clarinet
Thomas Nicholson viola
Ellen Arkbro trumpet
Susana Santos Silva trumpet
Vilhelm Bromander double bass
Johan Graden keyboard
Konrad Agnas percussion

The Ellen Arkbro commission was made possible with the support of Kulturrådet, The Swedish Arts Council.

nb: venue will be heated prior to, but not during the performance. we recommend that you dress warm. no intermission. programme duration: ~80 minutes

Ellen Arkbro

Ellen Arkbro is a Swedish composer and sound-artist primarily working with intervallic harmony in just intonation.

Kristofer Svensson

Kristofer Svensson is a composer and kacapi musician whose work is situated in a context in which artistic, contemplative, and meditative practices merge.

By tuning intervals in Just Intonation–a characteristic feature of all their music–and focusing on the emergence of tones from indeterminacy, the aperture and transparency of sound as well as the equanimous ground of emptiness from which sounds arise are thematized.

A recording of Svensson's suite for solo kacapi, ‘Andra Segel’, was released in 2020 on the kuyin label, and a trio album, ‘For a lemon tree’, with Maya Bennardo and Erik Blennow Calälv is forthcoming on the Another Timbre label.

Svensson’s compositions have been performed by soloists and groups such as Contemporaneous, Quatuor Bozzini, andPlay, Mats Persson & Kristine Scholz, Miyama McQueen-Tokita, Norbotten NEO, the Hong Kong New Music Ensemble, and their music has been performed at festivals such as MATA (US), Frequency Festival (US), and Edition Festival for Other Music (SE). Texts gathering Svensson's thoughts on the relationship between Buddhism and music can be found on intimatingemptiness.blogspot.com

Vilhelm Bromander (1988) is a Swedish bass player and composer deeply entwined in the Stockholm experimental and free jazz scene. He can be heard in groups such as Svenska Folkjazzkvartetten, Christer Bothén 3,in duo with Fredrik Rasten and with Elin Forkelid plays for Trane among others.

Vilhelm has also worked a lot with solo double bass - where he directs his focus to acoustic details such as beating, common partials and difference tones – to hear what happens with our perception when we allow ourselves to be immersed in sound for a longer stretch of time. In January -22 he also debuted as a soprano saxophone player with his new chamber work, Aurora, that was released by warm winters ltd.

As an improviser he has played with musicians like Axel Dörner, Tisha Mukarji, Michael Thieke, Sten Sandell, Phil Minton, Mazen Kerbaj, Maria W. Horn, Christer Bothén, Katt Hernandez, Lisa Ullén, Henrik Olsson to name a few. He is also an active session musician and has played with Daniel Johnston, Sara Parkman, Saigon, Musette, Joe Davolaz, Rotem Geffen, Josefin Öhrn + The Liberation, The Tiny & Music Is The Weapon.

vilhelmbromander.com