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The Exotica Album

 

Released March 15th, 2019 on Hubro.


Kjetil Møster: saxophones & electronics
Jørgen Træen: modular-synth & noise
BIT20 Ensemble
Conductor: Trond Madsen
Sigrid Holmstrand: flute
Håkon Nilsen: clarinet
James Lassen: bassoon
Danilo Kadovic: horn
Rune-Alexander Trygg: trumpet
Christopher Dudley: trombone
Manuel Hofstätter: timpani & percussion
Peter Kates: vibraphone & percussion
Jarle Rotevatn: piano
Johannes Wik: harp
Jutta Morgenstern: violin
Martin Shultz: violin
Liene Klava: viola
Agnese Rugevica: cello
Grieg Koeller: double bass
Knut Andreas Knutsen: additional whistling


All music composed by Øyvind Torvund.

Premiere at Only Connect Festival, Oslo on May 18, 2017.

Concert at BrassWind Festival, Bergen on September 30, 2017

Concert in Grieghallen, Bergen on September 30, 2018


The Exotica Album originates in a piece written by composer Øyvind Torvund, commissioned by the Bergen-based sinfonietta BIT20 Ensemble.
During the writing process, Torvund met with Jørgen Træen and me for two workshop sessions to explore the possibilities of achieving the sonic textures and roles that Torvund had imagined. Our discussions and Torvund's directions were mostly articulated in imagery terms, and he gave us room to interpret his descriptions freely.
The challenges that this piece offered were in some ways different than those I usually encounter with the electrophonic saxophone. One thing was that, even though I was given much freedom in the development of my parts, those parts needed to be executed very precisely to fit into the composition. Playing a piece with a structure composed to such detail requested a level of conciseness in the use of electronics which was surprisingly uncomfortable for me, as I am used to improvising more freely and balancing these matters in real-time, which I fully understand could not be an option here.
Also, I struggled to balance dynamically with the orchestra. I had to control the acoustic sax volume to blend with the orchestra but concurrently play loud enough to give the effect pedals a sufficient signal. Also, Torvund asked for some energetic sax parts, which is difficult to do within the dynamic range that the sinfonietta allows for, especially in the kind of reverberating acoustics of traditional concert halls.

The following excerpt of a conversation between Øyvind Torvund (Ø) and myself (K) is a glimpse into the process and thoughts regarding my role in the concert. It displays a dynamic and flexible composer who works in correspondence with his actant's affordances and is able to combine the detailed composition and orchestration with two "soloists" that has improvisatory practices deriving from a different territory than those of the orchestra.

K: I came into this project after an invitation from you, which I presume was to enact a role that you had in mind as a part of what you envisioned as 'The Exotica Album'. What triggered you to invite me into the project?

Ø: The idea developed over time. When you and I talked about the project the first time, I misunderstood: I thought you had a duo with Jørgen where both of you played only electronic instruments because of a project I heard of that the two of you had done in Hammerfest. The idea was to have some musicians who could perform live a 1950's electronic soundscape based on simple instructions. So, the duo I thought you had with Jørgen sounded perfect for that. I thought you had put away the sax for that project and only played more abstract noisy electronic sounds. But the next time we met, you said something like, "well, I play mostly sax but through effects", so then I realized…hmmm, all right, well, that's good too. But initially, I was after the electronic sounds; improvised, chaotic within that framework, spontaneous, to include that kind of energy and expression.

K: Could you specify "that kind of energy"?

Ø: 50's aesthetics, noise aesthetics, the kinds of things I had imagined including. And it's not only laziness that makes me avoid notating those things in the score. I feel that those kinds of expressions thrive best when allowed to be spontaneous. And that a duo like yours would be perfect because you have that register.

K: I remember, in the process of developing the piece, you were rather specific which musical elements you wanted to incorporate, but that we, to a large extent, were searching them out together and that the roles Jørgen and I had were formed together through discussions in the studio, in rehearsals with the three of us.

Ø: Yes, it was mostly based on keywords which, through workshopping and trials, became more and more specific without it turning into a sort of graphic notation.

K: Yes, I guess those means of transmitting information, whether they are notations, instructions, or discussions, do not really matter so much since the essence is that we reach some mutual understanding of what we want.

02 Starry Night (03:38)

10 Out Of The Jungle (04:59)

03 Wind Up Paradise Birds (05:09)

05 Rainforest Morning (02:29)

07 Jungle Alarm (03:30)

01 Ritual 1 (01:23)

04 Waking Up Again (04:51)

08 Ritual 2 (01:48)

06 Rainbow Crystal (03:22)

09 Cave (03:02)

Ø: Yes, but I'm in the process right now of revising the score, and I find it is challenging to solve this issue. It would be interesting to have a text that makes it possible for new, unexpected things to emerge.


K: That the piece is not finished yet, somehow?

 

Ø: Right. When played live, the dominating notated orchestral parts need a spontaneous, wilder counterpart so that it doesn't end up sounding so polite.

 

K: I was concerned and worried about this when playing with the orchestra, that I entered the room like an elephant stomping into the room with my rusty sax and huge amplifier. For me, this project was an exercise in balancing the dynamics so I could harmonize with the delicate orchestra.


Ø: Yes, I was also worried about the challenge of balancing the volume regarding unpredictable sounds and feedback in your setup. It would be very sad if you, in this setting, had to restrain yourself and could not exploit the full potential. Partly, I wish we could put microphones on the whole ensemble and just mix it loud so that everyone could give full force. But then there is also the challenge of not hurting the hearing of the orchestra musicians.

 

 

 

K: Yes. It is often a challenge for me to charge the playing with as much energy as possible without playing incredibly loud, also acoustically. It's a difficult exercise. The parameters of energy and volume are often connected, but here we want them to have opposing curves, which is difficult. Still, I remember you encouraging me to "let it go", to play loud and energetic, within certain limitations, of course.


I also interpreted my role as a sort of connection point between the acoustic orchestra and the electronic sounds. Apparently, according to the recent information you gave at the beginning of this talk, you thought I would not play sax at all in this project, so it was not your original intention for me to have this role as an interface between the acoustic orchestra and the electronic sounds. But as the piece evolved, we made these passages where I play acoustic sax, for example, the one inspired by Pharoah Sanders, which for me makes the sax draw some historical lines that would not appear without it. Some of the harp parts could just as well appear on an Alice Coltrane album. Suddenly the references explode in a different way.

 

Ø: Yes, and that was what I found, in the process, when I realized that "Oh, Kjetil is here! I have to have some sax-stuff in there!", so I wrote it into the piece. In the beginning, I had planned to let the orchestra take care of the easy-listening and exotica and give the tasks of electronic blips and noise and such to you and Jørgen. But when I realized I had that saxophone possibility with you, I added these things to it, where you could join in that way, to be a connection. I think you came up with that sound on 'Wind Up Paradise Birds', with that ridiculous reverb...

  

 

 

K: You mean that kind of lyrical Nordic sax but with a touch of french horn melody?


Ø: Yes, but… I think of it more as a soul music reference.

K: Aha, yes, that's right! We talked about having a little Isaac Hayes or something whispering in the background there. I remember now that it was helpful to bring in that soul reference while making that melody because I am often afraid to sound very cliché-like Nordic when I play that kind of 'lyrical'. I guess because I am Norwegian, it is fairly easy to sound like a kind of Bendik Hofseth/Jan Garbarek imitation.

Ø: Yes, but that can be very good! When used as a color, it is a great possibility to have as long as you go deep enough into it. As long as it has profound intentions, it doesn't become frivolous, post-modern mumbo-jumbo. I think it is a good thing to be able to take jumping between genres and styles really seriously. Then we don't mock or make simple pastiches. Maybe a little sometimes. I guess you think about this a lot, that you go into different styles without parodying it?
 

K: Oh yes, I mean, I have loved Jan Garbarek and Bendik Hofseth for large parts of my life, so playing in that "style" represents no light-hearted mocking from my perspective. But I like to mix up the references more, so when making those particular phrases, I thought of them as somewhat melancholic, “Nordic”, but also a bit majestic, like the french horn in spaghetti westerns resonating over Grand Canyon. And then, as you say, we also talked about that little soul music reference, which took it more down to a "street-level". So like a street-wise nordic Grand Canyon saxophone. Haha.

Ø: Haha, well…hmmm…


K: This is a very specific personal perspective on this.

Ø: Yes, I cannot say that I perceived it like that at all. But nevertheless, since you
bring your setup and your way of playing, it would be extremely difficult for me to
write and compose the phrases that you play, with all these specific references that somehow broaden the final result.