Research question:
1) In what ways can I reflect and examine time in music from modern philosophical and natural science studies in a compositional work? 2) How does time operate in music and philosophy from different indigenous perspectives, and in what way can one learn from these temporal aspects when it comes to the use of time in composition? 3) Music only exists in the moment, yet we imagine music spatially in a space of time, and regard it as a real physical object. Does music then have a surface (Feldman 2000), and what compositional techniques can I develop to achieve such spatial stasis?
In the PhD. position in artistic researchk at the Grieg Academy, I plan to investigate these questions and write series of compositions that will form an extensive composition cycle in which I myself am a participating musician. By researching time from a scientific and philosophical field, I will investigate in the composition process whether music can illuminate the essential nature of time, human temporality and consciousness. Whether it can give new perspectives on how time works in music, and how it communicates with our knowledge of space, time and ourselves. I want to develop compositional techniques that investigate and reflect time and space, in the form of modern philosophical and physical and indigenous perspectives (Rovelli, 2016, Rovelli, 2018, Kramer 1988, Zanussi 2017, Taylor 2016, Salama 2015, Dana 2003). As a participating performing musician in the project on piano and synthesizer, I will also research an interdisciplinary performing practice with performers in classical, rhythmic and folk music, and in this work develop compositional techniques and strategies for improvisation in an ensemble with different performing traditions.
Spatium Temporis
The project will culminate in a composition cycle, and will be performed in a suitable concert venue in Bergen of approx. 500m2 with conductor, joiker (sápmi singer) Johan Sara jr., vocal ensemble, string quartet, wind septet, piano, synthesizer, 2 percussion instruments and double bass. The ensemble is made up of performers from GAIMPRO (the Griegakademiet's research group for jazz and improvisation), GAFFI (the Griegakademiet's research group for performance and interpretation), performers from BIT20, and joiker Johan Sara jr..Sound processing, sampling and structuring of these in real time via software developed on ircam and on notam. The computer-generated material is distributed to speakers placed spatially in the room among the audience, grouped together with instrument groups from BIT20 and GAFFI, the rest of the ensemble on stage.
Research goals
The project will hopefully give more perspectives on how time works in music, and how it communicates with our knowledge of space, time and ourselves in a modern world. As an artist, I hope the project will further develop my compositional language and compositional techniques, and my perspective as a musician by studying the most human - time in my compositional work, interdisciplinary, technological and cross-genre. The development work will generate methods and
form strategies for working compositionally in an interdisciplinary and cross-genre context, with performers in classical, jazz and folk music. The project will also provide new experiences with instrumentation, electroacoustic spatialisation, dismantling of electronics, programming, and experiences with sound and data in real time. The compositional work and research will provide new perspectives on how to treat time as a structuring element, and time as a container/habitat/frame in composition. Hopefully, the project will provide some valuable reflections about time back to the fields of philosophy and natural science. The project will highlight Sami culture and philosophy, as well as place the Sami musical expression in modern contemporary music.
Erik Håkon Halvorsen is a Bergen based musician and composer. As a musician and producer he has had a long time collaboration with the sápmi (native people of northern Scandinavia) Joik-er/singer Johan Sara jr.
Besides sápmi music he has worked in a variety of genres including Latin-American, African, Jazz and pop, working with artists like Daniel Amaro, Angélic Kidjo, Bergen Big Band, Olav Dale, Helen Eriksen and Sondre Lerche.
He has released two albums with Erik Halvorsen trio. The debut-album was warmly welcomed by bbc music.
As a composer he holds a masters degree from The Grieg Academy at the University of Bergen, and is currently a PhD candidate studying under professor Dániel Péter Biró. Halvorsen is a member of the Norwegian Society of Composers. He has composed acoustic and electroacoustic pieces, and has had collaborations with Kitchen Orchestra, Mean Steel and Ensemble Noor.