Aksiom, Dedalus & Song Circus

An exciting selection of the work of French composer Pascale Criton (b. 1954), who has been exploring minuscule variations in sound, microtunings and multisensory perception since the 1980s. 

A programme of chamber and ensemble works showcasing her particular approach to instrumental sound, often amplifying extremely delicate or almost inaudible instrumental gestures with electronic equipment. 

Through close collaborations with dedicated performers, Criton has developed a highly personal but also flexible composition method. Many of her works employ finely tuned instruments. Such non-standard tunings, often called scordatura, have become a trademark for Criton’s technique and sound world. 

The concert is presented by the French Ensemble Dedalus, who are experts in the field of open form and experimental contemporary music. 

Aksiom venture into the powerful, abrasive sound landscapes of Esaias Järnegard and Marina Khorkova. Swedish composer Esaias Järnegard’s chamber pieces are concerned with emphasizing the relation between body and instrument, the physicality and the magic of sound in its raw form. His new Songs for Simone – Semaphore, The Black Sun, is inspired by the writings of Lotta Lotass: ‘The sound is a persistent, whistling, shrill, extended lament. The words rush in a steady, recurrent, continuous motion.’

Marina Khorkova, who lives and works in Russia and Germany, provides one of tonight’s works. In a_priori for flute and cello (2013), she draws on music she wrote down every day with no analysis or filter, minimally arranging it to make the final work. The piece emerges from and returns to silence over and over again, with a turbulent mass of events with tightly compressed sonorities, savage glissandos and death-rattles from the flute in between.