Borealis : Talking Experiments

A fantastic mix by KADAPAT – an experimental gamelan project consisting of Yogi and Barga, based on Bali in Indonesia, made for Borealis – a festival for experimental music in Bergen, Norway and community radio station Vers Libre.

Indonesian duo KADAPAT is characterised by their hybrid identities between the balinese traditions and legends, the technological urbanity of the millennial generation and their formal and Western art education. Kadapat explores the intersection of technology and gamelan, asking themselves how they can reimagine the centuries-old practice through synthesised sounds. They typically build their soundscapes around gamelan’s signature trait – a gradual build of layered metallophones, gongs and chimes that produce a disorienting, trance-like state – but these elements have been looped and chopped up for enhanced intensity. Eerie drone, warped synth lines and whiffs of dark techno further contribute to the ominous atmosphere, underlining the duo’s taste for subversive experimentation.

Composer Tze Yeung Ho gives an insight in to the story, motivation and process of the making of his new opera Nara – imperial decline, belonging, and composing in a «third space» all feature in this behind the scenes conversation with artistic director Peter Meanwell.

Nara premieres 12th March 2025, at Borealis – a festival for experimental music in Bergen, Norway.

Tickets: https://www.borealisfestival.no/en/events2025/apningskveld-tze-yeung-ho-nara/

Music: 1st Naamyam, from Nara by Tze Yeung Ho, performed by Gong Strikes One

Part of New Perspectives for Action. A project by Re-Imagine Europe, co-funded by the European Union

As Borealis celebrates its 20th anniversary we ask whether festivals still hold any power through the act of gathering and intense engagement, or whether it’s time for the idea of festival to change? What can a festival be and what challenges will it face in terms of aesthetics, politics and sustainability? Leading the conversation will be BBC Radio 3 journalist and author Kate Molleson, and joining Borealis artistic director Peter Meanwell on stage will be festival directors from across the worlds of contemporary and experimental music. Thomas Schäfer, Director of the International Music Institute Darmstadt (IMD) and Artistic Director of the Darmstadt Summer Course, is in charge of one of Europe most prestigious contemporary classical music festivals. Marie Jeanson is the director of Archipel – an international festival which promotes creation, contemporary music, and all forms of musical research and sound art. Beril Sarıaltun is a musician, sound designer & producer based in Istanbul, Turkey, where she leads the organisation Beats By Girlz Turkey, organising festivals often in opposition to prevailing political conditions. Together they share their ideas and visions, and discuss whether the festival format has a future, and if so what it might look like.

Supported by Fritt Ord. Part of New Perspectives for Action. A project by Re-Imagine Europe, co-funded by the European Union.

In this episode of Talking Experiments, host Jennifer Torrence and artist Espen Sommer Eide go deep into Espen’s new work The Waves, which will premiere at Borealis 2022. He discusses how The Waves explores some of the key ideas returning again and again in his work: language and music, building instruments, the form of the album, improvisation, collaboration, and presence and absence.

Espen Sommer Eide’s The Waves, runs from 16-20 March 2022 at Christinegaard Hovedgaard in Bergen, Norway.

Talking Experiments is hosted by Jennifer Torrence and produced by Borealis – a festival for experimental music

In this episode of Talking Experiments, host Jennifer Torrence and composer Kristine Tjøgersen discuss how she draws inspiration from nature in the creation of her recent works, whether that inspiration is in the form of sound, movement, data, patterns, or behaviours. She shares with us her compositional processes, including how she develops her inventive sound palette, and how she collaborates to realise fully scenographic pieces. She also tells us about the fascinating Bower bird, which is the specimen behind her new work for soundinitiative premiering at Borealis 2022.

Kristine Tjøgersen’s BOWER receives its Norwegian premiere at Kulturhuset i Bergen, in Bergen, Norway on the 20th March 2022.

Talking Experiments is hosted by Jennifer Torrence and produced by Borealis – a festival for experimental music

In this episode of Talking Experiments, host Jennifer Torrence chats to composer Catherine Lamb about her desire to create pieces that evoke a sense of collective intensity among musicians; about how, as a young composer, she found a sense of belonging through rational intonation; and about how she conceptualises listening and the perception of sound, and in particular the idea of sound as multi-dimensional shapes.

Catherine Lamb’s inter-spatia premieres at Borealis – a festival for experimental music on 18th March in Bergen, Norway, and then on the 20th March at MaerzMusik in Berlin, Germany.

Talking Experiments is hosted by Jennifer Torrence and produced by Borealis – a festival for experimental music

Meet musician and composer Andreas Borregaard in our podcast getting to know the people behind the music at Borealis 2021.

Andreas Borregaard is a Danish musician, who plays the classical accordion, an instrument that few people link to classical music. Besides being a performer, he is working on his phD, “Just Do It! – Exploring the Musician’s Use of Bodily Performance”, he is a composer and a teacher of the accordion, and is actively influencing the development of this young instrument’s use and repertoire.

In this episode presenter Christiane Meldgaard speaks to Andreas Borregaard at his home in Copenhagen, Denmark, and hears his story of how he uses the classical accordion together with voice and body in his performances. Andreas will present digital versions of the commissioned works by Philip Venables and Marcela Lucatelli at Borealis 2021.

Read more about the artist at Borealis 2021: https://www.borealisfestival.no/en/artists2021/andreas-borregaard-2/

The music in this episode is:

- Bent Sørensen: “Looking on Darkness”

- Sofia Gubaidulina: “De Profundis”

- Excerpt from Niels Rønsholdt’s “Until nothing left”, from the premiere at Borealis 2017

- Eblis Alvarez: “Tango Yo Nunca He Estado In Buenos Aires” (with the group MTQ)

- J.S. Bach: “Aria” (Goldberg Variations, BWV 988) (Arr. for accordion)

- Marcella Lucatelli, “To Be Free - Drift”

Presented and produced by Christiane Meldgaard

Executive Producer, Peter Meanwell

Meet musician and composer Ricardo Odriozola in our podcast getting to know the people behind the music at Borealis 2021.

Ricardo Odriozola is a Spanish musician and composer, who has been living in Norway since 1987 – a year in which he started to teach violin and chamber music at Bergen's Grieg Academy, where he also conducts a chamber orchestra and a sinfonietta. He performs and composes contemporary and classical music and runs his own record label Amethyst Records.

In this episode presenter Christiane Meldgaard speaks to Ricardo Odriozola at a sound studio in Bergen, and hears his mesmerizing story about his way into music and how his way of challenging himself will develop into a varied violin performance at this year’s Borealis.

Read more about the artist at Borealis 2021:

https://www.borealisfestival.no/en/artists2021/ricardo-odriozola-2/

The music in this episode is:

Kenneth Sivertsen: Døtrene – fremført av koret Gneis (dirigert av Tore Kloster), Stein-Erik Olsen og Ricardo Odriozola. Fra albumet “Dragning, chamber music by Kenneth Sivertsen” ARCD 1301

Ricardo Odriozola: Gualdrapas y Diplonduros – fra albumet “Views from my Horse” ARCD 1401

Pasquale Tassone: Nexus II (1982). Skrevet til Odriozola. Fra albumet “Postcards From Arlington” ARCD 1101

Leslie Hurwitz: Sonatine Prudent, Pratique (1983). Skrevet til Odriozola. Fra “Postcards From Arlington”

David Jackson & Le Jury: Susie On the Prowl – Le Jury er Einar Røttingen, Jostein Stalheim og odriozola (en improvisasjonsgruppe). Fra albumet “Jaxon Faces the Jury” ARCD 1201

Presented and produced by Christiane Meldgaard

Executive Producer, Peter Meanwell

Meet composer and musician Ruth Bakke and visual artist Anne Marthe Dyvi in our new podcast getting to know the people behind the music at Borealis 2021.

Ruth Bakke has composed for everything from brass bands, chamber music, and other orchestras and has been the organist at the Norwegian Church in Storetveit just outside of Bergen for 45 years. She has a fascinating story with studies in the USA in the 60’s and 70’s and a background in elite sports. Anne Marthe Dyvi holds an MA from the art academy in Bergen and has a special interest in technology and time, human existence, survival, and behaviour.

In this episode presenter Christiane Meldgaard speaks to Ruth Bakke and Anne Marthe Dyvi at a sound studio in Bergen, and hears how they met and how in their new collaborative performances for Borealis their cross disciplinary combination of experimental organ music and video projections come together in one piece to be performed in a spectacular church space.

Read more about the artists at Borealis 2021:

Ruth Bakke: https://www.borealisfestival.no/en/artists2021/ruth-bakke-2/

Anne Marthe Dyvi:https://www.borealisfestival.no/en/artists2021/anne-marthe-dyvi-2/

The music in this episode is the work Sphaerae, composed and performed by Ruth Bakke.

Presented and produced by Christiane Meldgaard

Executive Producer, Peter Meanwell

Meet the three artists behind a new performance concert called PSST2 specially commissioned for Borealis 2021: The Bergen based drummers and composers Øyvind Skarbø and Øyvind Hegg-Lunde together with illustrator Fredrik Rysjedal in our new podcast getting to know the people behind the music at Borealis 2021.

Øyvind Hegg-Lunde and Øyvind Skarbø are some of Norways most used drummers and composers – are they rivals or friends? Skarbø has a background in jazz and improvisation and has studied with Terje Isungset and Norwegian, Cuban, and Yoruba traditional music. Skarbø has performed on 28 albums, played in 28 countries and in 2019 released his acclaimed album with his new project Skarbø Skulekorps, for which he also composed the music. Hegg-Lunde has a background in both rock, pop, jazz and improvised music. He currently plays in Building Instrument, Erlend Apneseth Trio, Strings & Timpani, Electric Eye and José González’s indie-band Junip, amongst others. Fredrik Rysjedal focuses on self publication and performative comic art and has a central role in the fanzine community in Bergen.

In this episode presenter Christiane Meldgaard speaks to the artists behind PSST2 in a converted meat factory called Bergen Kjøtt where they are molding the commission, and hears how their friendship developed into an artistic collaboration of music and visuals in a performance for Borealis that is specially aimed at teenagers.

Read more about the artists on borealisfestival.no:

Øyvind Skarbø: https://www.borealisfestival.no/en/artists2021/oyvind-skarbo-2/

Øyvind Hegg-Lunde: https://www.borealisfestival.no/en/artists2021/oyvind-hegg-lunde-2/

Fredrik Rysjedal: https://www.borealisfestival.no/en/artists2021/fredrik-rysjedal-2/

The music in this episode is composed and performed by

Presented and produced by Christiane Meldgaard

Executive Producer, Peter Meanwell