Listen with your eyes

Composition for acoustic bass, live electronics and interactive design

Torben Bjørnskov, associate professor

The vision is that music and image will merge in one complete experience. Light and visual images will by the use of interactive design be projected as a multi dimensional expression of the music.

The inspiration comes from the two expressionist poems “Græs” by Tom Kristensen, 1927 and “Ispalmen” by Otto Gelsted, 1922. Both poems use very intense and strong metaphors and convey timeless thoughts that will always be pertinent to the seeking human being.

The poems are more relevant than ever since change today is the only constancy and always will call for a need to transform despair to faith. The poems encouraged me to face difficult times with loss and grief. ”Græs” and “Ispalmen” are in my understanding telling us how stagnation, death and despair can turn into creativity, hope and new life. The thought of death and loss hardly makes us cheerful and happy, but death is a reality – not meaningful in itself – but it allows us to make sense of our lives. And through our losses we might find new relationships, insights, confidence and faith in the future.

All sounds are live samples of related items, such as grass tied together as drumsticks, snowmelt, footsteps in ice, orchestral sounds from vinyls, and various samples of the acoustic bass. All samples are transformed and programmed in the Octatrack sampler.

Torben Bjørnskov: acoustic bass, octatrack, samples, programming
Julie Bjørskov: interactive design, sampling, add. programming, VJ
Christian Thrane: live video recording, Musikkens Hus Aalborg

Se Torbens poster fra Mini-konferencen 2017 herunder (klik på billedet)

Se også en live optagelse af værket i videoen.