The Polar Express

Robert Ek, 27th January, 2009

After some very busy weeks, NEO is travelling by train from Luleå to Narvik through a painfully beautiful winter landscape. Yesterday we performed a program in Studio Acusticum with music by Sorensen, Hedelin, Donatoni, Mozart and Steve Reich. The new piece by Steve Reich, Double Sextet was an adventure. We recorded the second sextet on tuesday and our sound technician Oscar Lovnér made a heroic work in editing so that it was possible to rehearse it the day after. The concert was very well received by an audience consisting mostly of staff and students at the University. Tomorrow we will perform the same program at the Nordlys Festival in Tromso, Norway. Our train wagon is quite empty now since most people left in Kiruna. Unfortunately its almost dark now at 2 pm, otherwise we could get a good view of the last wilderness in Europe.

Last week we performed and recorded five new pieces by students to Professor Jan Sandstrom. It’s really stimulating to see the progress they’ve made through the regular cooperation’s with NEO. The week before that NEO made great success in its premiere concert on baroque instruments together with Sirkka-Liisa Haakinen-Pilch and Malena Ernman in Peter Mattei’s new festival. 750 people in the audience couldn’t get enough.

Looking around in the wagon I see Christian and Robert viewing a DVD movie of obscure quality, Daniel listening to music, Sara sleeping and Mårten and Linnea reading novels.

Petter

Still jet-lagged

Robert Ek, 24th January, 2009

 

So I´m finally here in Buffalo NY. After a long day of flying we arrived last night and I tried to stay up to adjust for the time change. I thought it worked quite well but I still woke up around 4 in the morning local time, that´s 10 in Sweden. Laid awake for an hour and started to think about what to write in this blog. There are so many blogs out there so why another one?

Obviously the only thing people would be interested to read about is our work as a contemporary music ensemble, what we do and why we´re doing it. I´ve been a professional clarinet player for ten year now and I´ve worked in orchestras and ensembles with music spanning from classical music like Mozart to what I´m doing right now, playing the music of today. For me it´s been an obvious development wanting to explore my instrument and looking forward to the music of tomorrow.

I´d like to end with a qout from Alex Ross and his book The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century.

“While paintings of Picasso and Jackson Pollock sell for a hundred million dollars or more, and lines from T. S. Eliot are quoted on the yearbook pages of alienated teenagers across the land, twentieth-century classical music still sends ripples of unease through audiences. At the same time, its influence can be felt everywhere. Atonal chords crop up in jazz. Avant-garde sounds populate the soundtracks of Hollywood thrillers. Minimalism has had a huge effect on rock, pop, and dance music from the Velvet Underground onward.”

Robert