DIES IRAE
The premiere performance of Dies Irae, for female voices and synthesis sung by Lumen Voices and recorded in the Eric Ericsson hall in Stockholm, may 30th 2020. Thanks to Lumen Project Stockholm for making this come together in such a beautiful way. The whole streamed event is avaliable at Lumen Projects website.
Thunderstruck is an intermedial electricity show choreographed and performed by Stina Nyberg, with music composed by Maria w Horn.
The composition process included working with a frequency-controllable Tesla coil; an electrical resonant transformer circuit used to produce high-voltage, low-current, high frequency alternating-current electricity, originally invented by Nicola Tesla.
Ljudskogen is an interactive installation commissioned by the Swedish Museum of Performing Arts. Deserted but not uninhabited is an audiovisual composition commissioned by the Swedish Radio for Arts Birthday party 2016.
The musical structure is built as a palindrome, exploring the auditory illusions of decaying shephard tones, bowed piano strings and trance gates.
The piece is inspired by past visions of human colonization of space, visualized on early Super-8 science fiction movies like Cat Woman of the Moon, Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women, queen of outer space.
By manipulating the video in different ways, from physical manipulation of analogue tape to digitalization and processed by modern video editing tools, the very grit and artifacts makes visible a historic lineage of technological evolution.
CD-R / Cyanine is an audiovisual piece originally composed for multichannel sound, commissioned 2015 by Audiorama, Stockholm.
In this piece the harmonic spectrum of the synthesis is divided into several layers and given different attributes in terms of physicality: the lower frequency layers contain a higher grade of stability, while the rate of change gradually increases further up the frequency spectrum. The audio material has been recorded onto CD-R discs, which then where scratched, using the resulting glitches as a contrasting accentuation in the piece. The visual part contains two simultaneously displayed close up videos of liquid experimentation using Cyanine fluorescent dyes and CD-R discs reflecting light.
Diverted Units Is a serie of audiovisual pieces sculpted out of the crudest building blocks of electronic music; White noise and sinewaves. Hard, quantified units are linked together with pulsating timbres forming a sharp sequence of pieces.
The series was finalized 2011 and released by sthlm/london label Holodisc 2016. Music for Grand Piano and live electronics. The piece was premiered at Fylkingen 2013, performed by Lisa Ullén.
Music for disklavier and electronics
EPISTASIS
Epistasis is an eight-voice double string quartet – in performance four parts are played by the string quartet and four parts are played back electronically. Using various amplification techniques the spectral characteristics of the string instruments are enhanced and distorted, resulting in a blending between the acoustic and electronic layers.
Epistasis utilizes evolving progressions in F minor, the idiom being inspired by the sound and harmonic structure of doom and black metal music from the early nineties. Consequently, feedbacking electric guitar overdubs were merged with the electronic part while mixing the piece.
Epistasis was commissioned by Konstmusiksystrar and premiered by Malvakvartetten at Konserthuset in Stockholm 2018. The piece was released on vinyl by Hallow Ground in october 2019.
ALTERNATING CURRENTS
Alternating Currents is an intermedial electricity concert choreographed and performed by Maria W Horn, Stina Nyberg and a frequency-controllable Tesla coil. The concert is one part of a long-term obsession with the inventor Nikola Tesla and the early 1900’s phenomena of touring electricity shows.
Through flashing lightning bolts, the Tesla coil creates a sound which resembles distorted trance synths threading piercing melodies through ozone-filled air. In combination with dialogues reflecting on science, magic and electrocution, the concert creates a womb-like atmospheres with the lingering threat of bodily harm.
INTERLOCKED CYCLES
for multichannel loudspeakers and lights
Interlocked cycles is an audiovisual piece in eight voices of synchronised sound and lights. The audio is generated within the Supercollider framework using phase modulation synthesis. Using linear progressions of density and tempi, the compositional process explores a gradual acceleration in aural and optical patterns.
THUNDERSTRUCK
Thunderstruck departs from the 19th century phenomena of touring electricity shows. At a time when electricity was still a scientific novelty it was displayed in public performances as acts of magic. Today, an heir to the electricity magic show is the Tesla coil performance, making use of the spectacular sound and light effects the coil produces.
More info about
Thunderstruck
ÅNGERMANLÄNDSKA BILDER
Ångermanländska Bilder is an Audiovisual Piece that was commissioned by the Art Museum in Härnösand in 2017. The commission was part of a larger project where several composers and visual artists with connections to the area were invited create something based on material found in their main collection - Quistska samlingen. Maria w Horn has been using Super-8 footage that depicts the environment of Ångermanland from 1930-1940. The video is a sort of documentation over the the manor houses of the rural community, the steamboats transporting timber along the river, also their sawmill before and after its closure. The piece is composed using the EMS Buchla 200, a reel to reel tape machine and archival field recordings.
LJUDSKOGEN
It was constructed in collaboration with the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm and I was invited to work on the audiovisual composition.
The installation consists of five interactive synthetic strings which form an audiovisual installation that also serves as an instrument.
The audio design consists of live-generated audio synthesis using motion-data from the plucked strings to trigger sound.
Each string has a selection of frequencies that are all multiples of the same fundamental tone. Each time the string is plucked a randomly chosen frequency from the selection is triggered. Thereby the sound in the room always consists of a five note chord derived from the same fundamental that changes character whenever new multiples are triggered.
The instrument consists of a custom built phase synthesis patch tuned in just intonation developed using the SuperCollider programming language/synthesis engine. The degree of modulation, ADSR, feedback as well as several other parameters are affected by the the incoming interactive data. In the floor beneath each string are vibrating subsonic plates that adds haptic feedback from the instrument. The LED lights are designed to follow the sound and reinforce the strings current state.
DESERTED BUT NOT UNINHABITED
CD-R/CYANINE
To create reverberation I have used impulse responses from the old radio tower Taufelsberg in Berlin, recorded during my year of exchange studies at Univärsität der Kunste in 2014.
DIVERTED UNITS
SYNERGY
THE ACT OF WAITING (REMAINING INACTIVE IN ONE PLACE WHILE EXPECTING SOMETHING)