Transparent fabric (2022/23)
for string quartet and electronics
Written for Oslo String Quartet. Funded by The Norwegian Arts Council.
DURATA: 25′
ABOUT THE PIECE: Transparent fabric is an attempt at mixing the sounds of machines with the sound of string instruments. I have imagined a thin piece of fabric which, when swaying in the wind, will be less or more transparent depending on how close one is to it, thus obscuring what is behind it to different degrees. The sound of machines are thought of as the background, in which the strings “covers” these sounds and blend in and out of them. The string’s material comes from spectral analysis of these machines, enabling the string palette to imitate the machine’s “chords” with high precision.
The recorded material comes from field recordings done during the corona pandemic in Oslo. I realized that when walking through an almost empty city, the only thing that kept going and adding sound were automated machines: fans, ventilations, power stations etc. that relentlessly kept going.
The project where the piece was premiered was a joint collaboration between Oslo String Quartet and composers Martin Hirsti-Kvam, Martin Rane Bauck, Marte Røyeng and myself.
