1.1. ABOUT THE PROJECT

Question: Please tell me about what you are going to research and the background for the project?

Answer: The fundamental thought about my research project is related to inspiration. How can inspiration, together with my expression as a musician and composer, lead to new music? What are the processes behind incorporating inspiration into your musical products? Over the years, when working with music, your musical expression takes a path and forms something that is "yours". Besides the primary goal of creating new music, can my work with these new inspiration surroundings and sources, affect my musical aesthetic?

"Eastern Rebellion - with gamelan as inspiration for new musical expression" is focusing on a meeting point where I have searched for inspiration in gamelan music. With this inspiration from gamelan music, instruments and concept, my goal is to create new music. I have a broad practice as a performer and composer/music-creator with a professional career in both jazz and classical-contemporary direction. This background, in collaboration with inspiration and instruments from gamelan, will be illuminated in different musical expressions and contexts.

The background for my application to PKU, the Norwegian artistic research program, was based on a desire to develop myself as a musician and composer through the context of research. I can divide the context into two main artistic elements.

The two artistic elements in my research are:

Me as a musician and composer
Gamelan and its instruments, music, and concepts

My main focus has been to make artistic results with the highest possible quality IN the context I have set. My artistic goal is not to make gamelan music, but my outcome is musical products which are inspired by this music. Therefore I will not call my music gamelan music. On the other hand, one might say that making music for gamelan instruments is gamelan music. Why would I not call my music gamelan music? All my musical products in my research are a mixture of gamelan, and the different music styles my background represents. For me, it feels more natural to use western terms on my music because western music has been a big part of my life. To use gamelan as an inspiration is a way of adding colours to my music and aesthetic.

I studied gamelan in Bali for six months when my family and I lived on the island during the spring of 2012. How could this inspiration, both in the form of new instruments and new compositional techniques and principles affect me and my work as a musician and composer?

I have throughout my career had a great interest in other cultures' music, both as a classical percussionist and a jazz drummer. I have always cherished music that had this more spiritual awareness inspired by different cultures' music. Examples of music with this spiritual aura may be found in jazz by John Coltrane's works in the mid-sixties and Keith Jarrett and Jan Garbarek's work in the seventies, and in classical music by composers like John Cage and Steve Reich. My inspiration from the mentioned artist, and their inspiration sources, has had an impact on the different musical projects I have initiated and been a part of. A natural development of my interest in other culture's music was to do an in-depth study of gamelan when I had the opportunity in 2012.

I have divided my artistic research into different projects, and this points directly to my broad experience as a music performer and composer. For me, it is essential to through this research add something new to my knowledge and in many ways, my already developed aesthetics. But will my aesthetics be influence by the context of adding gamelan inspiration? To answer this question is complicated. This question needs a thorough comparison of my practice before and after the research period to be valid.

To further look at gamelan as my source of inspiration, I have highlighted specific elements from this music as inspiration in the different projects. For example, one project has a focus on gamelan instruments, another project has a focus on the rhythmical concept of Kotekan, and a third has a focus on duality. I will explain this more thoroughly in the reflection of each part of the project. I have not used this dogmatic as I, to a certain degree, mix the different elements from gamelan in every project. Still, there are focus areas. A detailed description of the specific gamelan element is written within the project where this element is most frequently used. When using the same component in a different project, I will refer to the text where this element had the focus. I do this to avoid a "gamelan encyclopaedia" feeling as I strive for total inclusion of inspiration from gamelan into my expression.

To address the problem, I have divided the research into different musical projects.

Through these different projects, I will try to highlight:

the improviser
the jazz musician
the composer
the contemporary musician

Ex. 1.1.1.

This model is a fundamental way of illustrating the connection. In reality, the arrows have a more complex mapping. Improvisation is a part of the composing process. How I perform and practice on jazz drums affect my practice in the contemporary/classical field and visa versa. Jazz and Improvisation are inseparably connected, but I like to think of improvisation as the process of creating unique melodies and rhythms(including shapes, structures, colours), and the spontaneous interaction with fellow musicians, in the performance of the specific music style presented.

The incorporation of gamelan, its instruments and ideas, into my compositional and musical concepts, constitutes my artistic research. The gamelan instruments have a unique timbre, and my excitement for this world of sounds is what I will try to cultivate in these various projects.

If I add inspiration from gamelan to the model, it will look like this:

Ex. 1.1.2.

Through my artistic research, I have designed different musical starting points, where the focus has been my background and its interaction with sonic elements and compositional concepts from gamelan music. This process led to four individual musical projects, which point back to my musical experience.

I can separate my work into two categories; the jazz musician and the classical/contemporary musician. In the light of contemporary music, I have composed and performed solo repertoire and ensemble music, and have performed and recorded a commissioned work by Ellen Lindquist written for me and Trondheim Sinfonietta. In light of the jazz musician, I have done two different projects; “Basement sessions” with modal jazz as a starting point and “Espen Aalberg & En En En”, with a more open improvisational/contemporary approach.

I have separated the inspiration from gamelan into three different focus areas.

The overall mood of the gamelan. - emphasised in "Basement Sessions."
My gamelan Instruments - emphasised in "Mantra."
Compositional concepts from gamelan - emphasised in "Compositions for.....".

To summarise, the sub-projects are thus the following four projects:

"Basement Session" - The musical goal was a further development of how eastern music influenced the modal jazz of the sixties. The research question was: Can I create fusion music between gamelan and sixties modal jazz? The process was to find common elements, such as scales and rhythmical systems, and further to compose music for the western instrument and the gamelan instrument included. My goal was, through this mentioned process and compositions, to create a musical framework where both styles are present in this new expression.
“Mantra” - cooperation with composer Ellen Lindquist, where the focus was a meeting between gamelan, contemporary music, and western instruments. Various musical attempts that include improvisation affected and inspired Ellen´s compositional work.
"Compositions for..."

- gamelan set into a framework of contemporary music.

- compositions for vibraphone and marimba based on concepts from gamelan music.

“Espen Aalberg/EnEnEn” - an open improvisation meeting between gamelan and western instruments, where improvisation, in a free-jazz/contemporary-music context, is the core of the project.