Artistic Results – Artistic Reflection – Intro – Performing Jennifer Walshe’s SELF-CARE – Piece About Everything – Drifting Diary – My favourite piece is the Goldberg Variations – Mind the Gap – The Q/A – PERSONHOOD – Outro
Just Do It!s artistic results consist of six new works. Below are video documentations of performances of the works, most of which were recorded at the final presentation concerts at NMH on 2 and 3 December, 2022. As mediated excerpts of reality these videos should not be mistaken for the live experience. Additionally there are two videos intended for screen viewing, My favourite piece is the Goldberg Variations made by Pierre Martin and Drift made by Marcela Lucatelli.
James Black: Piece About Everything (2020)
Programme note by Black/Borregaard:
Generally speaking I find the connection to the audience and the two-(or more)-sided personality of the performer interesting: How much is the musician and how much is the piece?
In any case, situations that are awkward for me and/or the audience are not necessarily to be avoided.
I like to try and hide myself as much as possible – but unavoidably my interests and concerns come through.
The approach of thinking that the thoughts in my head are super interesting and need to be shared with the world is possibly the most narcissistic thing imaginable, aside from getting on stage and doing it myself.
It's always me and no matter how hard I try I am unable to stop myself coming through.
Probably my drive is just as much based on total egoism.
Supported by:
The Danish Arts Foundation
The Norwegian Academy of Music
Philip Venables/Ted Huffman: My favourite piece is the Goldberg Variations (2021)
Programme note by Venables:
My favourite piece is the Goldberg Variations is based on interviews with Susanne Borregaard (mother of accordionist Andreas Borregaard) conducted during the summer lockdown of 2020.
Andreas approached me about writing a piece involving extended performativity beyond simply playing the accordion. I was drawn to the idea of the accordionist as storyteller, almost in the troubadour sense. We met with writer Ted Huffman in Berlin to speak about Andreas’ own life and work, which in turn led to interviews with his mother over Skype.
My work with Ted often uses verbatim text and this piece continues our exploration of queer histories. From this interview material, we formed twelve snapshots of a life over seven decades.
The piece is dedicated to Susanne Borregaard with great appreciation for her contribution.
Supported by: The Norwegian Academy of Music
Marcela Lucatelli: Drift (2021)
Programme note by Lucatelli:
The process with Brazilian-born Marcela Lucatelli did not last that long, but in keeping with the composer’s aesthetic approach, it has developed quite explosively: the first meeting was a conversation in the King's Garden, Copenhagen, the next one featured two and a half hours of intense, Brazilian capoeira training, and the third, found us on a deserted harbour filming footage of me in a cockroach costume and in high femme drag. Lucatelli has, in collaboration with lyricist Kirstine Fogh Vindelev, chosen to extract basic material from my own life's ‘realness’. To drift: how much of the world is still pulling you around a future and what is it that makes you casually get away with it? Indecision, deviation and high speed. Navigating through a worldwide pandemic and the Great White Way of living.
Supported by:
The Danish Arts Foundation
Koda’s Cultural Funds
Louise Alenius & Andreas Borregaard: Relationer (2021)
Programme note by Alenius/Borregaard:
This work discovers, explores, tests and rejects relations. Between the composer and the musician, between the body and the instrument, between the human and the animal.
Supported by:
The Danish Arts Foundation
Koda’s Cultural Funds.
Jennifer Walshe: PERSONHOOD (2021)
Programme note by Walshe:
What does it mean to be a person at a time when our every moment is surveilled, mined and monetized by the devices we have extended our consciousness into? What agency can we hope to have, when even one of the most famous pop stars in the world has no control over her own life? What does it mean to be human when a billionaire class dreams of upgrading their existence and living forever, while the rest of us struggle with what to do with our hands when talking to a stranger at a party?
In this commissioned work by the Irish composer and vocalist Jennifer Walshe, the Oslo Sinfonietta surround the accordionist Andreas Borregaard and subject him to a range of tests and procedures. Borregaard plays the accordion, performs obscure choreographies and watches films laden with subliminal messages; he is scored for how well he can fall over, he moves objects in endless patterns and drinks smoothies in strange colours. Are we in a laboratory? Mission control? A luxury spa? Or are we simply at home?
Commissioned by: Oslo Sinfonietta, Andreas Borregaard, Ultima Oslo Contemporary Music Festival, New Music Dublin
Supported by: Arts Council of Ireland, FFUK, Bergesenstiftelsen
Production: Oslo Sinfonietta, Den Norske Opera & Ballett, Ultima Oslo Contemporary Music Festival