Norwegian composer
Øyvind Torvund fuses rock, sounds from daily life, and classical influences, creating music in which opposites collide – improvisation and precise notation, simplicity and complexity, humour and seriousness. His work defies categories, exploring opposites and unconscious forces beyond traditional frameworks. The same approach is reflected in his
Yes and No, a collection of five short pieces.
Raven Chacon is a Navajo composer, performer and visual artist from Fort Defiance, Arizona. Employing composition, installation, performing arts and electronic noise music, he delves into the relationships between sound, space and people. Raven often makes instruments that merge acoustic and electronic elements, while reflecting the culture and heritage of indigenous peoples. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2022 for his composition
Voiceless Mass. Describing
Round, he expounds: “All performers raise their kebob skewers to the sky. One performer activates the spinning of the record (push, place tone-arm, etc.), and all performers immediately stab at the spinning record until each finds a groove in which to position their skewer. At a group self-determined cue, the performers each perform a 30-second solo, rotating around the turntable clockwise. The switching between performers can be quick cuts or overlapping transitions. After the final performer has completed their solo, all performers play as a group until the determined duration has elapsed.”
defunensemble’s artistic director
Sami Klemola is a versatile and daring Finnish composer whose oeuvre also includes sound art and installations. A vital part of his work is devoted to electroacoustic music, which is what prompted him to found defunensemble.
Peak is a piece about intensity and softness. These contrasts reflect our inner lives, where strong feelings such as positivity or strength can suddenly turn into doubt or sadness. By alternating between harsh and gentle textures,
Peak tries to represent the unstable nature of human emotions.
The music of Finnish composer
Laura Naukkarinen (Lau Nau) is imbued with idiosyncratic, finely honed sound worlds. Her work often includes traditional instruments, voice, modular synths, reel-to-reel tape recorders and field recordings. Describing the process of writing
For Buchla she elucidates: “working with modular synthesizers – especially with the Buchla 200 system in Elektronmusikstudion Stockholm – has changed my way of perceiving sound and composition.
For Buchla is inspired by the way the synthesizer modulates the amplitude, sounding frequencies and pitch, with a control signal from a low frequency oscillator. In this composition, a similar effect is made by the movement of the bow, respiration and other characteristic means of each instrument.”
Croatian composer
Lovro Stipčević explores the spectrum of tonal colours and contrasting textures, constantly expanding the boundaries of expression. In his works, electronics often merges with classical instruments, opening up space for new soundscapes. In the composition
Kaamos [Polar Night], he explores oscillations and transitions between lyrical and vehement, tender and gloomy sonic textures. It is a single-movement piece, refined during the
MBZ residency in Helsinki, in collaboration with defunensemble. He found inspiration in his stay in Finland, where he experienced unique weather conditions – extreme cold and prolonged darkness. Thinking around the theme of “breakup” as the guiding idea of MBZ 33, Lovro connected this motif with his personal experience of being in Finland, which for him represented an interruption of light. In times of darkness, we often retreat into ourselves, the recess of ourselves, into quiescence. Lovro’s intention was to embrace that darkness, or rather, the turbulent calm. And so, at times, the music, like a nocturne, reveals all the potential and mystique of darkness.
On his second birthday, his parents took him to a record store and told him to choose any one he liked as a gift. He picked a colourful LP by Afric Simone. Samples from the Mozambican singer’s record, who had several hits in the mid-70s, are also used in the final piece of the evening by Finnish composer
Antti Auvinen. Boasting a keen interest in timbre and rhythm, Antti composes most of his pieces for unusual chamber ensembles. The composition
Warp My Simone, dedicated to the
defunensemble, employs musical as well as textual material referencing philosopher Simone Weil, whose reflections on justice and the struggles of humanity are woven into the deeper strata of the piece. In addition to these two contrasting ones, Anttii also found inspiration in other sources, such as the TV commercial used during the launch of the Boeing 747 aircraft.
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The Finnish collective of musicians and sound designers defunensemble is known for its innovative approach to concert programming. As the only Finnish ensemble specializing in electroacoustic music, they combine different approaches to the sound, with an unpretentious attitude that eschews classical music etiquette.
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defunensemble:
Hanna Kinnunen, flute
Mikko Raasakka, clarinet
Markus Hohti, cello
Emil Holmström, piano, keyboards
Sami Klemola, electronic keyboards
Timo Kurkikangas, electronics
Anders Pohjola, electronics
Øivind Torvund: Yes and No*, for flute, clarinet, piano, cello and live electronics
Raven Chacon: Round, for five performers and turntable
Sami Klemola: Peak, for bass, clarinet, piano, cello and live electronics
Laura Naukkarinen: For Buchla, for flute, clarinet, synth, cello and oscillator
Lovro Stipčević: Kaamos**, for flute, clarinet, piano, cello and live electronics
Antti Auvinen: Warp My Simone, for bass flute, bass clarinet, two to four singers and two samplers/keyboards
*premiere
**premiere - commissioned by the 33rd MBZ, the work was created at the residency in Helsinki in collaboration with defunensemble
The concert is sold out! If additional seats become available, priority will be given to festival ticket holders.
