19.30 Euphonies d´Or 2004 parkscenen
Internationell konsert med prisvinnande musik

Spelordning
The Utility Of Space - Natasha Barrett
La disparition de l'azur - Erik Mikael Karlsson
Ascent - Andrew Lewis
Conversation in Cadaqúes -Jonas Broberg
Scatter - Jon Christoffer Nelson


The utility of space
The Utility of Space is an exploration of spatial musical structure. This exploration is done in two ways: with poetic spatial implication, and with carefully controlled trajectories and sound magnitudes in real spatial places. Recited text, taken from the Tao Te Ching (translated by Raymond B. Blakney, 1955), is one of the sound sources, and is a driving force behind the composition:

"Between the earth and sky
The space is like a bellows,
Empty but unspent,
When moved its gift is copious."
The work was commissioned by NICEM, with the Norsk Komponistfond's support

La disparition de l´azur
I felt good in coming to France and GMEB in order to compose this piece. First of all, France is a country which consider culture and different cultural expressions to be a necessity in a modern society. Experimental expression and an open mind create new ideas that will bloom to the sky. GMEB is in many ways the spearhead of new and interesting ideas in the fields of experimental music. With this in my mind and an overall good feeling I started composing "La Disparition de l'Azur". I wanted to make a piece which used some elements characterising the aesthetics of the music from GMEB. In the piece the listener will, in some parts, find a refined musical collage containing music from the real world, although all the sounds in this piece are concrete, a vast number has been subjected to heavy DSP. The dramatic gesture, the rapidly shifting acoustical image, the contrast between processed and non-processed sounds can be seen as a more technical point for departure of this piece. My previous works has over the years focused upon the acoustical ability of electroacoustic music; the tension in acoustical contrasts, fast changes and slow transformations in the acoustical image, are matters which I consider to be of greatest importance and a uniqueness of the electroacoustic music. La Disparition de l'Azur was commissioned by GMEB and produced in their studios in 1993.

Ascent
Ascent is inspired by the mountains of Snowdonia in Wales. The relationship between the music and the landscape ranges from the literal (the manifestation of actual forms, gradients and contours in musical structures), through the more metaphorical (the suggestion of particular, seasons, colours, textures, weather onditions) to the poetic (the evocation of the different characters or moods of the landscape, or of possible human responses to it).
An important idea in the work is the that of static forms presented in apparent constant change, mirroring the way that the near changeless morphology of the landscape appears to be in constant and drastic metamorphosis. The effect is that of perceiving the same set of musical objects from different viewpoints, or in different lights : at first from a distance, as a panorama ; then as if approaching and passing through a landscape rendered in sound. Beyond every turn of the musical discourses lies yet another view of the same familiar material, but perhaps framed by unfamiliar surroundings, or perceived in some new relationship with what has gone before.

Conversation in Cadaques
The piece is based on a conversation among three artists, taking place sometime during the forties in Cadaquès. One of them is Salvador Dali. The piece is intended to reflect Dali's swaying between active participation in the conversation, and the world of inner fantasies.

This world of inner fantasies has been brought into focus. With the sound material, I tried to create imaginary aural objects set in motion, often with a menacing rhythm.
On one level of the piece, I wanted to create the image of a painting "in progress", with shapes and colours gradually emerging. The piece opens with the first brushstrokes and after that the "painting" begins to live a life of its own. The focus is moved to the conversation (a "spoken" sentence), then to Dali's increasing distance from the conversation. He fades into a dreamworld, and the images come to him.The painting gradually begins to take shape… even outside the frame. "Conversation in Cadaqués" is my homage to Dali. It was done at EMS Stockholm (Sweden)

Scatter (1999/ 2000)
"Scatter" was commissioned by the 20th Annual New Music and Art Festival at Bowling Green State University. This multi-channel work for tape is based on recordings of sounds that contain an element of motion.
The composition explores the use of sound spatialization as a primary formal determinant. Scatter attempts to surround the listener with events from every direction that move at varying velocities and trajectories.
The work also explores the composer's own multi-channel implementation of granular synthesis that "scatters" sonic grains throughout the multi-channel environment.

Natasha Barrett
Natasha Barrett began working seriously with electroacoustic composition during a master’s degree in analysis and electroacoustic composition, studying with Jonty Harrison at the University of Birmingham (UK). This study also gave her the opportunity to work with BEAST (Birmingham ElectroAcoustic Sound Theatre) which has greatly influenced her current work, and lead on to a doctoral degree in composition supervised by Denis Smalley, awarded in 1998 at City University (London, UK). Both degrees were funded by the Humanities section of the British Academy. In the same year, a grant from Norges forskningsråd (The Research Council of Norway) enabled her to work as a resident composer at NoTAM (Norsk nettverk for Teknologi, Akustikk og Musikk / Norwegian network for Technology, Acoustics and Music) in Oslo (Norway). Afterwards, she worked for one year as a senior lecturer at the music conservatory in Tromsø (Norway). She is now a freelance composer and teacher, based in Oslo. In her spare time she is active in NICEM (Norsk seksjon av International Confederation for Electroacoustic Music / Norwegian section of the International Confederation for Electroacoustic Music), an organization whose main activity focuses on the performance of electroacoustic music in Norway and abroad.
Her compositional output consists of works for instruments and live electronics, sound installations, dance, theatre, and animation projects, but all activity is rooted in her work with acousmatic tape composition, which features most strongly amongst her creations.
Her work has received many awards, including the first prize at Musica Nova (Prague, Czech Republic, 2001), Noroit-Léonce Petitot (Arras, France, 1998), first prize (1998) and a mention (1995) in the Trivium section of the Bourges International Electroacoustic Music Competition (France), Concurso Internacional de Música Eletroacústica de São Paulo (IV CIMESP, Brazil, 2001), Concours Scrime (France, 2000), Festival Internacional de Nuevas Tecnologías, Arte y Comunicación Ciber@RT / Ciber@rt International Festival of New Technologies, Art and Communicaton (Spain, 2000), Concours Luigi Russolo (Italy, 1998, 1995) and Prix Ars Electronica (Linz, Austria, 1998). She has received commissions from institutions and performers in Europe and America, and her work is available on numerous CD labels, including empreintes DIGITALes, Cultures électroniques/Mnémosyne Musique Média, CDCM/Centaur, and two privately produced solo CD productions.

Erik Mikael Karlsson
Born in 1967 in Nynäshamn, Sweden. His first contact with electroacoustic music was in 1984 via his early interest in avant-garde jazz. He studied composition and computer music at EMS with Hungarian composer/conductor Tamas Ungvary among others.

His international breakthrough came in 1991, with the experimental music drama "Threads and Cords" (commissioned by the Swedish Broadcasting Corporation and composed in collaboration with composer Jens Hedman) which was awarded the European Broadcasting Union/Unesco Rostrum-prize for electroacoustic music in 1992.

His style is characterized by a strong personal sense for dramatic effects but also for the poetic, the intimate. His works are often epic, with long meditative lines counterpoints by outbursts of vocal and percussive powers. His interest in the human voice can easily be traced through pieces such as "Known" (1990), "Threads and Cords" (1990-91), "La disparition de l'azur "(1993) and "Intensities and Interludes" (1998). Karlsson's instrumental music is compared to his electroacoustic music extremely quiet, slow and characterized by softness and stillness, yet with an enormous tension and inner drama ("Still Life with Wound" for soprano, lute and viola da gamba, "Still Life with Desire" for piano, "Some Miniatures with Sorrow" for lute etc.) At the end of the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s, he took an active role in the Fylkingen Society for New Music and Intermedia Art in Stockholm, as a member of the board of directors and as a member of the program-committee. Between 1990 and 1996, he was a member of the executive committee at EMS in Stockholm. Since 1995, he has been teaching composition at EMS in Stockholm. In 1992, he was awarded a grant from the DAAD Berliner Künstlerprogramm, which entitled him to work during 1992-93 at the Technisches Universität's Electronic studio in Berlin. He has been awarded numerous international awards for his music such as the EBU/Unesco Rostrum award, in 1992 (selected piece) and in 1994 (recommended piece) and 3 first prizes in the Grand Prix International de Musique Eléctroacoustique in Bourges, France. As a composer he has worked at EMS in Stockholm, the Danish Institute for Electro acoustic Music in Århus (DIEM), le Groupe de Musique Expérimentale de Bourges (GMEB), the Swedish Broadcasting Corporation in Stockholm, the Danish Broadcasting Corporation in Copenhagen, the Westdeutscher Rundfunk in Cologne (WDR) and at La Muse en Circuit in Paris. Commissions have been received from the French State (Commande de l'Etat Français), the Swedish Broadcasting Corporation, INA-GRM at Radio France in Paris, The Cullberg Ballet, the Westdeutscher Rundfunk, the Danish Broadcasting Corporation, Sonic Arts Network in London, l'Institut International de Musique Eléctroacoustique de Bourges, the DAAD Berliner Künstlerprogramm, the Swedish Concert Institute, DIEM etc. Erik Mikael Karlsson is member of the Collège des Compositeurs at the Insitut International de Musique Electroacoustique de Bourges in France. He is currently also working as radio-producer for the Swedish Broadcasting Corporation in Malmoe responsible for covering electroacoustic and experimental music. Erik Mikael Karlsson has lectured about his work in Europe, USA and Canada. His music has been performed and broadcast worldwide. He is represented in the International Edition of Who's Who in Music. In 1998, he moved to Denmark and Copenhagen where he lived for almost 3 years but moved back to Sweden (Malmoe) in the beginning of 2001 where he now lives and works.

Andrew Lewis
Andrew Lewis is a composer specialising in contemporary electroacoustic and instrumental/vocal music. His main intrerest is in acousmatic music (music without live instruments or voices, intended for diffusion over a multi-speaker sound system), but he is active in many other areas, from music for live performers with electronics, to orchestral music. Since September 1993 he has been Lecturer in Music at the University of Wales Bangor.

Jonas Broberg
Jonas Broberg was born 1962 in Uppsala, Sweden.
Since the late eighties he has devoted himself
principally to composing electroacoustic music.
He debuted with "Bucharelli's Lamento", premiered at a
concert in Florida, USA in 1993.
In 1994 he received an honorary mention for the piece
"Locations" at the annual Electronic music competition
in Bourges, France.
In 1998 he won the Program music prize in Bourges for
the piece "Conversation in Cadaqués".
In 2000 he received an honorary mention for the piece
"La Fenêtre vers les Souvenirs" at the International
Rostrum of Electroacoustic music.
During the last few years Jonas has been composing and
teaching at E.M.S. (The Studio for Electroacoustic Music in Sweden).

Jon Christopher Nelson
(Born 1960)
Electroacoustic music has been performed widely throughout the United States, Europe, and Latin America and has been honoured with numerous awards including fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Fulbright Commission. He is the recipient of Luigi Russolo and Bourges Prizes and was recently awarded a Bourges Commission. He has composed in residence both at Sweden's national Electronic Music Studios and at the Institut International de Musique Electroacoustique de Bourges. His works can be heard on the Bourges, Russolo Pratella, CDCM, NEUMA, ICMC, and SEAMUS labels. Nelson is currently a Full Professor at the University of North Texas where he is an associate of the Center for Experimental Music and Intermedia (CEMI) and serves as the Associate Dean of Operations.

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