Arco Straordinario

 

Frano Đurović, a composer with the largest body of work of artistic electronic music in Croatia, is known for fusing experimentation and pop humor. He creates orchestral, chamber, theatrical and cinematic works, and works in multimedia and sound installations. He teaches at the Academy of Music in Zagreb and chairs the Board of Directors of the Porin Music Award. Two bodies, one soul was created as a response to hypocrisy in society, particularly in the context of public condemnation and selective tolerance. The composition reflects Fran’s critique of double standards and questions what freedom even means today – both in society and in art.

 

Dai Fujikura is a London-based composer born in Osaka, Japan. He moved to the UK at the age of 15, where he studied under Sir George Benjamin. He has composed for traditional Japanese and European period instruments, and has written orchestral music, as well as pieces of musical treatre and operas. Dai believes that a group of string instruments, such as a quartet, creates a sound that is more than just a collection of individual parts – almost like a living organism, as if becoming a new instrument. The sound of a string ensemble possesses an elasticity that allows it to be constantly re-shaped, as if its very form were changing. This idea became the inspiration for his piece Aquarius. Dai started imagining what it would feel like to touch this sound, squeeze it, eat it, even. Is sound hard on the outside and soft on the inside, or the other way around? How does it taste? He wanted to create a composition that changes freely, without clear transitions or defined segments. Imagining a flying, flowing form, the title Aquarius perfectly suited the moment in which he was finishing the piece. He happened to learn that the 2,000-year Age of Aquarius was just beginning at the time. Although he knew little about astrology, he could not resist choosing this as the title for his composition.