Mondgewächse – exploring the relationship between the performer and the instrument

A unique commission piece created by an international team, has world premiere in the Gothenburg Concert Hall October 19, 2014.

Share Music Sweden, an innovative Swedish arts organisation, presents their new commission piece - Mondgewächse. The premiere is taking place in the Gothenburg Concert Hall October 19, 2014. Mondgewächse is created by international composer Patricia Alessandrini together with Gageego!, one of the best chamber ensembles in Sweden, and Share Music’s In:fluence ensemble.

This is a unique performance where traditional instruments, sensors and live motion tracking are used. Modern technology unites and challenges, giving new musical expressions and unique artistic perspective. The idea behind Mondgewächse is to explore the transformation of the relationship between the performer and the instrument.

Patricia Alessandrini: -“Mongewächse is a multimedia project focusing on perception and the body, shaping images of the performers and their gestures in sound, shade and colour. This is a piece of musical theatre, involving painting, poetry, video art, shadow play and specially-designed interfaces making sound in unusual ways.”

Together with Goldsmiths, University of London and the Interactive Institute in Gothenburg P. Alessandrini has developed new instruments, exclusively for the performance. Canadian artist and video designer Freida Abtan has been involved in the creative process as well. Mondgewächse takes its name from two pieces by Arnold Schönberg: Pierrot Lunaire and Herzgewächse.

Special guest of the evening is the American composer and editor-in-chief of the Leonardo Music Journal, Nicolas Collins. The ensembles will also perform his piece Roomtone Variations.

The concert will take place October 19, 2014 in the Gothenburg Concert Hall, at 18:00. It is part of the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra´s Chamber Music series. In collaboration with the GAS-festival. Find out more in our blog: http://sharemusic.se/mondgewachse/

Patricia Alessandrini is the composer whose works, principally involving live electronics and/or interactive video, actively engage with the concert music repertoire, and issues of representation, interpretation, perception and memory. Her compositions have been programmed in festivals including Agora (Paris), Archipel (Geneva), Ars Musica (Brussels), Electric Spring (Huddersfield) and performed by Accroche Note, Arditti Quartet, Ensemble Aleph to name a few.

Gageego! is appreciated for its ability to, in a joyful and refreshing way, interpret todays music in a technically polished, highly artistic manner. The group works regularly with Swedish and international artists such as Peter Eötvös, Heinz Karl Gruber and Pierre-André Valade. In addition to concert performances in Sweden, the group has toured in Russia, Denmark and Austria.

In:fluence Ensemble is a new ensemble of Share Music playing interfaces, which convert movements into sounds and light.