For my final concert I wanted to present the work I had done related to my 3rd and 4th project; “compositions for….” and “Espen Aalberg & En En En”. I had earlier in my research presented the other parts of my research on other concerts.

I decided to add “Ilir-Ilir” from “Basement sessions” because I felt adding this piece showed a more complete picture of all parts of my research. Through “Ilir-Ilir” I could also add the melodic improvisation on the Trompong instrument, which for me is “the” melodic gamelan instrument.

 

My composition “Duo for Vibraphone and Marimba”  was premiered at this concert. The preparation for the performance of this piece was massive. Both Lars Sitter and I thought the 3rd movement was maybe the most challenging music we have ever played. Not in terms of individual parts, but the extreme intricate interplay was an enormous concentration task. We started the preparation in January 2020 and made a rehearsal plan that led to the concert set to the 8th of May. Due to the coronavirus, I had to this postpone concert, and everything here put on hold. We started to rehearse again in august.

As mentioned in my reflection regarding “Duo for Vibraphone and Marimba” I had to revise movement 1. It was changed because of a pragmatic and a musical reason. The pragmatic reason was the amount of preparation it needed. The musical reason was that it held too many parts, and I wanted a more musical united and manageable idea.

 

I am delighted with the musical result. In performance, there is always something that happens that should not happen, but that is a part of performing music, especially when it is a premiere of a long and challenging piece of music.

 

The  2nd part of the concert was “Espen Aalberg & En En En”, an improvisation-based piece. I had a musical idea was to unite the sonic landscape of south-east Asia with western instruments. The recording “Espen Aalberg & En En En” was done as a quartet, featuring Tor Haugerud, Michael Duch and Eirik Hegdal. For the concert, I decided to ask Daniel Formo and Matilda Rolfsson to join the performance. Daniel is a pianist/organ player, and I asked Daniel to play the prepared piano, in addition to Hammond organ. I had the idea to ad the “John Cage gamelan element” to the expression, and I was excited when Daniel prepared the piano by Cage's recipe. The prepared piano blends exceptionally with the drums, wooden sounds and the general gamelan instruments. Percussionist Matilda Rolfsson has a unique touch, and her exceptional performance suited the total sonic qualities in the total musical expressions.

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