May 20–21, 2016, 7pm
Norwegian sound festival Only Connect joins forces with the new music festival Tectonics. This curatorial partnership between conductor and Tectonics director Ilan Volkov with nyMusikk’s artistic director Anne Hilde Neset has produced a polyphonic encounter between different musical ideas and expressions.
Symphonic music, sound installations, ensemble works, electronics, improvisation, brass bands and noise are some of the elements that will take place in the renovated bank building Sentralen, Oslo’s brand new cultural meeting point.
Opening the festival is one of Europe’s leading symphonic orchestras, the Oslo Philharmonic. Conducted by Volkov, the orchestra will premiere a specially commissioned work, Sweet Pieces, by Norwegian composer Øyvind Torvund. They will also perform a new work, Come Back Soon, by the prolific American musical polymath Jim O’Rourke (Sonic Youth, Brise-Glace, Gastr del Sol, etc). Other orchestral events include Esoteric Mass—performed in a blacked-out space—by the young Icelandic composer Bergrún Snæbjörnsdóttir (known for her collaborations with Björk and Sigur Rós), and A Large House by Canadian composer Cassandra Miller.
Christian Marclay’s Screen Play will be presented for the first time in Norway, a moving-image graphic score featuring performers Lasse Marhaug, Christian Wallumrød and Ane Marthe Sørlien Holen. Marclay will also do a rare live performance, in an acoustic quartet with Rhodri Davies (harp), Lene Grenager (cello) and Ilan Volkov (violin).
Another festival highlight include Norwegian composer and improvisor Hild Sofie Tafjord whose maximalist site specific piece Mural II is written for three brass bands, with Tafjord herself on French horn and electronics.
Legendary Japanese turntablist and guitarist Otomo Yoshihide will play in a duo with Norwegian renowned free jazz drummer Paal Nilssen-Love.
In the venue’s old bank vault, Sami artist Ánde Somby performs his animal yoiks, and artist Espen Sommer Eide does a performance about extinct language.
The vault also exhibits Mariam Rezaei’s MILK ///, a sound installation of record players, based on Dylan Thomas’ radio drama Under Milk Wood. The installation will also incorporate live interactions from Rezaei on turntables and vocals, Michael Duch on double bass and Maya Dunietz on vocals.
Dunietz will also perform together with French cult artist Ghédalia Tazartès, as well as presenting a selection of rare piano pieces by Ethiopian composer Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou.
Internationally acclaimed ensemble asamisimasa performs a mini-retrospective of pieces by British composer Laurence Crane.
Ensemble neoN and vocal artist Stine Janvin Motland perform together for the first time for composer Catherine Lamb’s specially commissioned work, while composer Klaus Lang performs a live harmonium set.
Closing the festival is HEN OGLEDD—an experimental collaboration between improvising harpist Rhodri Davies and folk growler Richard Dawson.
For further information, see nymusikk.no or contact annkristin [at] nymusikk.no.
Tickets for sale at ticketmaster.no.
nyMusikk (est. 1938) is a Norwegian national organisation commissioning, producing and presenting sound-based work across all art forms.
