Programme

24 ABR 2021, 11:00

Serralves

CHORDS for guitar

28 ABR 2021, 19:00

Church of Cedofeita

three (for brass trio)*

chordalities (for pipe organ)

*In collaboration with Banda Sinfónica Portuguesa

We find Ellen Arkbro (1990, Stockholm) among a remarkable group of young Swedish musicians involved in Stockholm's distinctive experimental music upwelling, a scene that has found fertile soil on the support provided by three key institutions: Elektronmusikstudion (EMS), Fylkingen and the Royal College of Music where she completed a degree in electro acoustic composition.

Arkbro is a composer and sound artist working mainly with intervallic harmony in just intonation, exploring what happens when you follow pitches to where they naturally sit, both in terms of the ear and the mathematics. She has composed for early music ensembles, wrote a series of durational pieces for ensemble, created electronic sound environments in the form of installations and performances, such as the work lasting 26 days presented at the Stockholm Concert Hall.

Her much praised first album, for organ and brass(2017) looks back to Arkbro’s studies in Just Intonation with North American pioneers of minimalism La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela, as well as with their disciple Jung Hee Choi in New York and with kindred spirit Marc Sabat in Berlin.

Her more recent longplayer Chords (2019) sees Arkbro adopt a more minimalist approach focusing on the immediate qualities of sound and elegantly expanding the tonal capacities of acoustic instruments using precise, subtle synthesis. Composed of a carefully selected combination of tones, Chords stretches, extends and obscures the timbral character of the instruments it is performed on, reflecting a careful examination of the sonic materiality and harmonic quality of chords. Here Arkbro considers how the compositions occupy space rather than time.

Ellen Arkbro stands out for her meticulous approach to processes, the use of unusual tunning systems and the attention to sound qualities, resulting in the striking impression of continuous shapeshifting sound forms sustained throughout her pieces. She has performed at events and places such as Uppsala Konstmuseum (Uppsala, SE), Café Oto (London, UK), Köln Philharmonic Hall (Cologne, DE), Barbican (London, UK), Live Arts Week (Bologna, IT), Cent Quatre, INA GRM (Paris, FR), Intonal festival (Malmö, SE), Rewire festival (Den Haag, NL), EMPAC (Troy, New York, US), Art Night London, The Lab (San Francisco, US), No Bounds/Tactical Contact (Sheffield, UK), Le Guess Who festival (Utrecht, NL), amongst others.

At the Church of Cedofeita, she presents “three” for brass trio (from her first album) and a new work for her current main instrument, the pipe organ. To Serralves, she brings CHORDS for guitar, from the later album.

Access the concert at Igreja de Cedofeita: it is recommended a donation to S. Martinho de Cedofeita Parish at the entrance. The suggested value is 7,5 euros.

*Three played by Gabriel Lopes (tuba), Jaime Resende (horn) and Tiago Nunes (trombone).