As it's name suggests, the Tectonics festival that runs over a long May weekend in Glasgow taps into the seismic shifts that have occurred across the entire spectrum of experimental music over the last decade. Instigated by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra's former Chief Conductor and current Principal Guest Conductor Ilan Volkov, who is currently the Chief Conductor and Musical Director of the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, alongside AC Projects' Alasdair Campbell, the man behind the Le Weekend and Counterflows festivals, this second edition of Tectonics pulls together some of the world's leading experimental composers alongside a younger generation of musical free-thinkers from a world where rock, art and classical music collide.
“There are so many strands of music now, and I think it's great to have people from different backgrounds working like this,” Volkov says from Reykjavik, where the Icelandic arm of Tectonics has just opened. “We've been doing this sort of thing in Glasgow on and off for ten years now, and it's great to be able to call up a composer who's maybe not used to working with an orchestra, and then to present the work in an interesting way. Audiences don't want just one thing, and with tectonics can have a whole range of ideas coming at them.”
So while iconoclasts such as composer Christian Wolff will perform some of their most thrilling works, a series of BBC commissions will feature new pieces from the likes of plunderphonist John Oswald and American composer David Behrman. Former Sonic Youth guitarist and long-time musical explorer Thurston Moore, who recently performed in London with Yoko Ono, will appear at Tectonics twice. The first will find Moore play a late show with Dylan Nyoukis, one half of Noise duo Blood Stereo and founder of the Chocolate Monk imprint as well as the Brighton-based Colours Out of Space festival. Moore's second appearance will see him hook up with Japanese maestro, Takehisa Kosugi, one of the key figures of the Fluxus movement, whose treated violin-based works saw him collaborate with the late choreographer, Merce Cunningham.
While a two-way traffic between Iceland and Scotland is spear-headed by a performance from the Reykjavik-based composers collective, S.L.A.TU.R., there is much input input too from internationally renowned Scottish artists. The opening concert of Tectonics will feature maverick pianist and composer and his National Jazz Trio of Scotland collaborator, viola player Aby Vulliamy, working with the BBC SSO to present a new arrangement of his AC Projects commission, 'Summer Dreams'. With appearances by female collective Muscles of Joy, absurdist duo Usurper, veteran 'ambi-dustrial' outfit Cindytalk and a new musical installation by Sarah Kenchington inbetween, the festival's finale will feature the world premiere of 'Past Fragments of Distant Confrontation', the first ever orchestral work by composer, singer and performer, Richard Youngs.
“I've known Richard's music for a long time now,”says Volkov, “and I wanted to give him a chance to do something new. Scotland is really special just now, and it's easier to put this kind of thing on in Glasgow than it is in London. Suddenly there are less and less barriers, and this is happening all over.”
Tectonics takes place in the City Halls, Old Fruitmarket and St Andrew's In The Square, Glasgow, May 9th-11th.
www.tectonicsfestival.com
The List, April 2014
ends
“There are so many strands of music now, and I think it's great to have people from different backgrounds working like this,” Volkov says from Reykjavik, where the Icelandic arm of Tectonics has just opened. “We've been doing this sort of thing in Glasgow on and off for ten years now, and it's great to be able to call up a composer who's maybe not used to working with an orchestra, and then to present the work in an interesting way. Audiences don't want just one thing, and with tectonics can have a whole range of ideas coming at them.”
So while iconoclasts such as composer Christian Wolff will perform some of their most thrilling works, a series of BBC commissions will feature new pieces from the likes of plunderphonist John Oswald and American composer David Behrman. Former Sonic Youth guitarist and long-time musical explorer Thurston Moore, who recently performed in London with Yoko Ono, will appear at Tectonics twice. The first will find Moore play a late show with Dylan Nyoukis, one half of Noise duo Blood Stereo and founder of the Chocolate Monk imprint as well as the Brighton-based Colours Out of Space festival. Moore's second appearance will see him hook up with Japanese maestro, Takehisa Kosugi, one of the key figures of the Fluxus movement, whose treated violin-based works saw him collaborate with the late choreographer, Merce Cunningham.
While a two-way traffic between Iceland and Scotland is spear-headed by a performance from the Reykjavik-based composers collective, S.L.A.TU.R., there is much input input too from internationally renowned Scottish artists. The opening concert of Tectonics will feature maverick pianist and composer and his National Jazz Trio of Scotland collaborator, viola player Aby Vulliamy, working with the BBC SSO to present a new arrangement of his AC Projects commission, 'Summer Dreams'. With appearances by female collective Muscles of Joy, absurdist duo Usurper, veteran 'ambi-dustrial' outfit Cindytalk and a new musical installation by Sarah Kenchington inbetween, the festival's finale will feature the world premiere of 'Past Fragments of Distant Confrontation', the first ever orchestral work by composer, singer and performer, Richard Youngs.
“I've known Richard's music for a long time now,”says Volkov, “and I wanted to give him a chance to do something new. Scotland is really special just now, and it's easier to put this kind of thing on in Glasgow than it is in London. Suddenly there are less and less barriers, and this is happening all over.”
Tectonics takes place in the City Halls, Old Fruitmarket and St Andrew's In The Square, Glasgow, May 9th-11th.
www.tectonicsfestival.com
The List, April 2014
ends
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