Process Blog will be updated regularly
Introduction (about) - in short
This project investigates creative processes in composition FOR larger (6+ musicians) ensemble consisting of improvisers, as well as the processes IN the ensemble rehearsals/concerts.
Investigation of the compositional material includes development of new tools and methods in composition for this type ensemble.
Development of compositional material/texture is as a starting point based on exploration and mapping of sonic and timbral qualities and potentials in the ensemble including my own instrument.
Exploring a single sound or sound combination can, for me, suggest and uncover a diversity of imagined possible meanings and other sonic spaces. On a sensory perception level the experience (and verbalising) of certain qualities in the sound, on a more concrete level as notions of how this sound could occur and evolve in relation to time and context. For example in transformations, relation to other sounds etc.
The investigation of processes in the ensemble rehearsals are based on a collective explorative approach to my material, the ensemble interplay, creation and development of an ensemble sound etc. The rehearsals will thus serve as a mutual feedback process between my presentations of material and ideas and the musicians feedback and suggestions. The ensemble becomes to some extent co-creators in this collective exploratory process. I am also part of the ensemble as performer, accordingly there is also a dialogue between me as musician and me as composer.
The project will also investigate and discuss issues in relation to the visual and communicative expression of the composed material in a score.
Background and the composition-improvisation dynamics
The project stems from my longstanding practice as performer/improviser/composer in a hybrid field between free and experimental jazz, improvisation, contemporary composed music (New Music) ao, as well as in a diversity of different type ensemble/band constellations: both in terms of instrumentation and ensemble sizes. Exploration and understanding of the dynamics between improvisation and composition has been and still is a fundamental driving force and fascination in my work.
In my practise as improviser and composer, I constantly experience how those two ways of creating music influence and inspire one another in my musical perception as listener, the way I create, my vocabulary and aestethic inclinations.
My earlier mentioned starting point exploring sound and timbre as a basis for developing textures in composition for larger ensemble is partly related to the way, I have been/am working with exploring and expanding my own sonic palette and vocabulary in relation to especially improvisation. Exploring alternative techniques, sound ao on the saxophone is part of both my rehearsing and creative practise.
In this project I will expand the sound explorational approach in compositional material applicable to the full ensemble. This is out of a desire to conduct a more systematic and in-depth exploration of new compositional material and form structures as well as reflection on the sometimes conflicting issues in the improvisation-composition dynamic.
Some of the challenges, issues and dilemmas I have experienced in the split between improvisational and compositional praxis within myself as both improviser/performer and composer raise questions and dilemmas reappearing time and time again: how to balance pre decided and undecided or open elements and form, how to embrace the qualities of the unexpected and less controlled in improvisation with an expressive and formal intentionality and clarity, which the composed material can offer.
‘The balance’ between the pre decided/composed and open/improvised is a term often used by improvisers/composers. It’s not just a question of proportions. It implies questions about which elements should be pre decided and which should be open - and how open? How are those elements woven together and how is this expressed and communicated in the best way in a score: as true and precise as possible to the idea/concept imagined but at the same time giving space for individual expression and imagination.
Sub Habitat is the name of the working ensemble created for this research.
The core group:
Lotte Anker: composition and saxophones
Mazen Kerbaj: trumpet, objects, electronics
Katt Hernandez: violin
Nina de Heney: doublebass
Andrea Neumann: inside piano + electronics
Sten Sandell: pno/keys, voc
Burkhard Beins: drums/perc, objects
with occasional additional guests