ELLEN ARKBRO
Music
Programme
24 ABR 2021, 11:00
Serralves
CHORDS for guitar
28 ABR 2021, 19:00
Church of Cedofeita
three (for brass trio)*
chordalities (for pipe organ)
*In collaboration with Banda Sinfónica Portuguesa
We find Ellen Arkbro (1990, Stockholm) among a
remarkable group of young Swedish musicians involved in Stockholm's distinctive
experimental music upwelling, a scene that has found fertile soil on the
support provided by three key institutions: Elektronmusikstudion (EMS), Fylkingen and the Royal
College of Music where she completed a degree in electro acoustic composition.
Arkbro is a composer and sound artist working mainly with intervallic
harmony in just intonation, exploring what happens when you follow pitches to where they
naturally sit, both in terms of the ear and the mathematics. She has composed for early
music ensembles, wrote a series of durational pieces for ensemble, created
electronic sound environments in the form of installations and performances,
such as the work lasting 26 days presented at the Stockholm Concert Hall.
Her much praised first album, for organ and
brass(2017) looks back to Arkbro’s studies in Just Intonation with North
American pioneers of minimalism La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela, as well as
with their disciple Jung Hee Choi in New York and with kindred spirit Marc
Sabat in Berlin.
Her more recent longplayer Chords (2019) sees
Arkbro adopt a more minimalist approach focusing on the immediate qualities of
sound and elegantly expanding the tonal capacities of acoustic instruments
using precise, subtle synthesis. Composed of a carefully selected combination
of tones, Chords stretches, extends and obscures the timbral character
of the instruments it is performed on, reflecting a careful examination of the
sonic materiality and harmonic quality of chords. Here Arkbro considers how the
compositions occupy space rather than time.
Ellen Arkbro stands out for her meticulous
approach to processes, the use of unusual tunning systems and the attention to
sound qualities, resulting in the striking impression of continuous
shapeshifting sound forms sustained throughout her pieces. She has performed at events and places such as Uppsala
Konstmuseum (Uppsala, SE), Café Oto (London, UK), Köln Philharmonic Hall
(Cologne, DE), Barbican (London, UK), Live Arts Week (Bologna, IT), Cent
Quatre, INA GRM (Paris, FR), Intonal festival (Malmö, SE), Rewire festival (Den
Haag, NL), EMPAC (Troy, New York, US), Art Night London, The Lab (San
Francisco, US), No Bounds/Tactical Contact (Sheffield, UK), Le Guess Who
festival (Utrecht, NL), amongst others.
At the Church of Cedofeita, she presents “three”
for brass trio (from her first album) and a new work for her current main
instrument, the pipe organ. To Serralves, she brings CHORDS for guitar,
from the later album.
Access the concert at Igreja de Cedofeita: it is
recommended a donation to S. Martinho de Cedofeita Parish at the entrance. The
suggested value is 7,5 euros.
*Three played by Gabriel Lopes
(tuba), Jaime Resende (horn) and Tiago Nunes (trombone).