In the latest issue of
@thewiremagazine - Roföldur at Borealis Festival last month:
“The sound of Ore is close to a work played live upstairs on the Saturday night - remarkable, given the work is created entirely with a contrabass clarinet, soprano recorder and a selection of antique wooden birdcalls. Roföldur, co-composed by Bergrún Snæbjörnsdóttir and John McCowen (performed by the latter with tape accompaniment), is a work of extraordinary intensity. Even in its quiet moments, it seethes with feverish potency. The birdcalls, recorded at the Ina-GRM studios in Paris, have been processed and stretched into a silvery fog, closer to the feel of grit and slate than the feathered things its sources are designed to imitate. The contra practically barks, every breath a congeries of fissile multiphonics.”
@seismografmag : “It was at Østre, however, that Borealis’ almost insistent niceness was truly challenged. In Saturday’s double bill, the ever-intriguing Bergrún Snæbjörnsdóttir, together with John McCowen, presented Roföldur. Here, the multiphonics of the contrabass clarinet grew into organic formations in the twilight of sound, until fragile bird-like tones – these small creatures with superpowers – forced their way into the dense sonic mass. Wow.”
@icareifyoulisten :
“In Bergrún and John’s Roföldur, contrabass clarinet multiphonics emerged from white noise, first at the faintest whisper, then growing into earth-shattering, spectral explosions that threatened to rattle our bones from our bodies. Sound became vibration; McCowen’s foghorn of overtones transformed music from a sonic experience to a somatic one.”
Thanks for having us
@borealisfestival &
@petermeanwell ,
@inagrm for the time and space and
@reimagineeurope for the support ❤️ 📸 Miriam Levi
