Oslo Mobile Orchestra (OMO)

Oslo Mobile Orchestra (previously Oslo iPhone Ensemble) explores the future of mobile music performance in a collaborative setting. The ensemble is an ad-hoc group of students and researchers from the University of Oslo and Norwegian Academy of Music.

Oslo Mobile Orchestra performing at the VERDIKT 2010 conference (Photo: Ståle A. Skogstad).

Concept

Our concept is building on previous work in the Oslo Laptop Orchestra:

we think of our mobile phones as any other type of instrument, and performs with them as if we had been playing clarinets, trumpets, etc. we embrace the new possibilities that digital instruments allow for, and the social aspects of playing together we only rely on sound coming from the instrument, we never use an external PA system These rules can be seen as limitations, but they are also liberating and gives the ensemble a clear aesthetic, visual and musical appearance.

Oslo Laptop Orchestra (OLO)

Oslo Laptop Orchestra (OLO) was started by Kjell Tore Innervik and Alexander Refsum Jensenius in 2007, and has been carrying out workshops and concerts at irregular intervals ever since. OLO is following in the tradition of PLOrk , where each performer has a laptop, speakers and controllers.

Concept

we think of our laptops as any other type of instrument, and performs with them as if we had been playing clarinets, trumpets, etc.

we embrace the new possibilities that digital instruments allow for, and the social aspects of playing together

we only rely on sound coming from the extended instrument, we never use an external PA system

These rules can be seen as limitations, but they are also liberating and gives the ensemble a clear aesthetic, visual and musical appearance.