NyKlang 2024 became a project about rooms, rules and listening situations.
I gathered sixteen young MGK composers from across Denmark and coordinated the project with KLANG. Over several months, the works developed with mentoring from composer Jeppe Ernst.
The format was tour de chambre: several performances took place at the same time, and the audience moved freely between them. That meant the students could not think only in terms of a fixed stage and a fixed listener. The room became part of the piece.
For me, this was a lovely change from my usual work with score composition. I care deeply about notes, form and notation, but here the students also had to compose with space, repetition, secrecy, audience movement and the simple fact that not everyone would hear the same thing.
One group worked with power and absurdity around a gong. One made tiny concerts for one listener at a time, after which the score was destroyed. One created an interactive work around human input and AI. One withheld almost everything except the title, letting secrecy become part of the piece.
Source KLANG: NyKlang 2024 ↗