14:00

Doors Open: Sensory sound installation Haptic Room Study #4 by Adi Hollander and Annea Lockwood (open all day) in the foyer.

17:30

Album release: Looking for Daniel by Phill Niblock. Launch of the CD published by Unsounds records in collaboration with Echonance.

Program #1 / 17:45

Ellen Arkbro (1990)

. For organ and brass (2014) for ensemble. Performed by members of the orchestra ONCEIM and Ellen Arkbro

. Chords (2018) for solo organ. Organ: Ellen Arkbro

. Three for brass trio (2016). Performed by members of the orchestra ONCEIM

Clarence Barlow (1945-2023)

. Until seven for guitar and electronics (1980). Performed by Benjamin Garson guitar, and Lucie Nezri electronics.

Talk / 19:00

Frederic Blondy & Ellen Arkbro / moderator Samuel Vriezen

Program #2 / 20:15

Luigi Nono (1924-1990)

.To commemorate the centenary of the birth of the great Venetian composer Luigi Nono (Jan 29, 1924), the Echonance Festival presents his string quartet ‘Fragmente – Stille, an Diotima’.

. Fragmente – Stille, an Diotima (1980) for string quartet. Performed by Maurice quartet

14:00

Doors Open: Sensory sound installation Haptic Room Study #4 by Adi Hollander and Annea Lockwood (open all day)

Program #3 / 15:45

Catherine Lamb (1982)

. Shade/Gradient (2018-2023) for viola, voice and electronics. Performed by Elisabeth Smalt viola and voice, electronics by Lucie Nezri.

Program #4 / 17:45

Gabriel Paiuk (1975)

. Degrees of Transparency (2024) For piano and soundtrack on seven loudspeakers. Gabriel Paiuk, Piano. World Premiere

Clarence Barlow (1945-2023)

. Für Simon-Jonassohn Stein (2012) for MIDI organ

MIDI organ: initiator of a new version commissioned for Echonance Festival & Orgelpark by Lucie Nezri

Gabriel Paiuk

. Rhythm, Presence, Voice (2024) New commission from the Echonance Festival for piano and string quartet. Performed by Reinier van Houdt and Maurice Quartet. World Premiere

Talk / 19:00

Adi Hollander & Gabriel Paiuk / moderator Samuel Vriezen

Program #5 / 20:15

Eliane Radigue (1932)

. Occam Ocean for orchestra (2015) . Performed by ONCEIM and local guests: Clara de Asis & Ezequiel Menalled (guitars), Claudio Jacomucci (accordion), Germaine Sijstermans (clarinet), Dario Calderone (double bass), Claudio F Baroni (gongs & tam-tam) and Nirantar Yakthumba (manual harmonium)

shade/gradient – Catherine Lamb

Catherine Lamb’s work is characterized by her insistence on what she terms the ‘interaction of tone.’ In pieces such as her shade/gradient, precisely tuned intervals are played slowly at subtle volumes, blending and generating a variety of difference and combination tones, phasing, beating, and aural illusions. These techniques often serve as the foundation for the later music of James Tenney. The resulting effect from how she employs them exhibits clear similarities to the atmosphere in Radigue’s more recent acoustic works, which are playful yet fascinating in their details.

Fragmente-Stille, an Diotima – Luigi Nono

The string quartet Fragmente-Stille, an Diotima, is described as a turning point not only in Luigi Nono’s oeuvre, but also in the history of musical modernism. Often, the critical commentary focuses on the surprise of a piece formed out of introverted sound fragments and silent quotations from the romantic poet Hölderlin presented by a composer who had had a reputation for three decades of producing intense, confrontational music with revolutionary political intentions. This quartet clearly signals a heightened emphasis on musical self-reflection, however, the overarching context is no less ‘political’ than before: it is concerned with the utopian transformation of the act of listening.

For organ and brass – Ellen Arkbro

In her piece For organ and brass, Stockholm-based composer Ellen Arkbro looks back at her studies in just intonation with La Monte Young, focusing on tuning, intonation, and harmonic modulation. This piece was composed for the 400-year-old Scherer-Organ in Tangermünde, an instrument with a specific type of tuning known as meantone temperament. The Orgelpark is one of the few concert venues today with an instrument built in this temperament.

About Clarence Barlow

A concert featuring Clarence Barlow’s music will serve as a tribute to the composer, who passed away on June 29, 2023. Clarence Barlow had a distinguished career as a composer and professor of composition and sonology at the Hague Conservatory for over 20 years, as well as in Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln and Santa Barbara University, California. This makes his music very resonant with the concept of ‘Echonance’ as he was an inspiring figure propagating this avant-garde movement to many students, including having been a teacher of curator Claudio F Baroni, and discussion moderator Samuel Vriezen.

Rhythm, Presence, Voice – Gabriel Paiuk

The relation between language, meaning and music has an extensive history. Often this relationship is bound to the habitual setting of words into music. In those cases, meaning is presumed to emerge from the capacity of language to refer to entities or events in the world. Nonetheless, and beyond the capacity of language to prompt references, language also produces meaning through rhythm (prosody), melodic articulations (intonation), stresses, pauses and the fundamental possibility of coupling different sensing agents. Rhythm, Presence, Voice unfolds across the space in-between music and language. It explores the material and rhythmical qualities of language as a realm where the possibility of meaning appears.

Degrees of Transparency – Gabriel Paiuk

Degrees of Transparency deals with how sound – and especially the tools used to produce and mediate sound – play a role in our engagement with the world around us. It is a semi-improvised performance for piano, soundtrack and a variable loudspeaker setup that explores the acoustic protocols of sound staging in the concert setup. Both piano and loudspeakers are addressed as nodes in histories and forms of expression that modulate what we perceive as fictional or real.

Haptic Room Study #4 / A sound map of the Housatonic River – Adi Hollander & Annea Lockwood

The 4th installation of Haptic Room Studies focuses on tactile spatialization and the distinction between hearing and listening, emphasizing how tactile listening encourages active engagement. The Haptic Room study installation transforms sound into a tactile experience using a multi-channel haptic sound system. However, the spatial arrangement of the installation using ‘haptic speakers’ presents challenges as it restricts the impact to areas in direct contact with the body. Participants are encouraged to actively engage with the environment. For this installation, Adi Hollander works with  A Sound Map of the Housatonic River, a piece by composer Annea Lockwood.

This sonic map follows the course of the Housatonic River, from its sources in the Berkshire Mountains to the mouth at Milford, Long Island Sound. Annea Lockwood, captivated by the multi-layered complexity of river sounds, has dedicated years to exploring them. Hearing and feeling these sounds offer a different experience from a visual scan – a more intimate one. The energy flow of a river becomes palpable through the sounds created by the friction between the current and riverbed, current and riverbank. 

Occam Ocean – Eliane Radigue

Radigue’s Occam’s Ocean is the only orchestral piece she has composed, creating a different performance dynamic to the solo pieces on the previous festival. This demanded a titanic job, since Eliane does not write her music down in notes but transmits the sound concepts orally, and individually to each of the musicians. She said:  “The transmission method is said to be oral, but in the end, it is more relational, almost like osmosis. While I define the rules, the structure of Occam Ocean is deliberately flexible, yet present, because it serves as a guide for the musicians. Later we evolved together. You could almost say that the piece was created organically, on its own as I have often stated, each of my instrumental pieces is a shared creation”.