INDUSTRIAL LANDSCAPES
For their programme Industrial Landscapes,
ELECTRA explores the nature of the industrial
experience, contrasting the many facets of
what could be seen as a relatively recent
phenomenon and showing its contradictions in a
dramatic reflection of the questions at the
heart of modern society. The production
incorporates distortion, electronics, video
projections, a scaffolding installation and is
structured around four solo works shrouded in
two large scale ensemble pieces written
specially for the project.
Industrial Landscapes begins with a prologue, in the shape of the
tone poem Mestra which tells the story of King Erysichthon,
(literally “earth tearer”) punished by the gods for his wanton
acts against nature and given an all-consuming hunger as
punishment. After selling off all his worldly possessions and even
his daughter Mestra, he eventually consumes himself. In this
metaphor for our own ecological wantonness its message serves as a
warning, for the self-destructing nature of the industrial
process. In Michael Gordon’s Industry, found here in the stunning
new definitive version for adapted violin and effects, the true
scope of this overwhelming industrial process is revealed as
Monica Germino’s instrument builds slowly from its deceptively
subtle beginning through waves of virtuosic distortion and screams
towards its inevitable climax.
The relatively short period when industrial workers held the keys
to the developed world’s economic engine is mirrored in Louis
Andriessen’s Workers Union, which has percussionist Tatiana Koleva
hammering a mighty tribute to the organized class struggle by
those at the sharp end of the means of production. Ned McGowan’s
Workshop shifts the argument towards the creative. How does a free
spirit cope, fighting for creativity in an industrial environment?
Susanna Borsch’s recorder dances delightedly around a mix of
industrial noises, occasionally falling into step with the
machines but often simply fighting for survival. The dream of
eternal economic expansion and the consequences of the bubble
bursting is reflected in Urban Solo by Klas Torstensson, performed
by singer Michaela Riener, with a variety of percussive samples.
The nightmare of an abandoned cityscape, where street fighting
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characters rule the roost in an environment no longer needed by
the industrial juggernaut gives a chilling, and timely reminder of
post-industrial blues.
As an epilogue, ELECTRA has chosen the new work Sweet Love (the
title belies its solid, relentless character) by Cornelis de
Bondt, a piece whose minimalist, programmed structure echoes the
new virtual industrialisation of our modern information society.
Industrial Landscapes closes on this cautionary note to those who
would make the performing arts subservient to the follies of the
market.
PROGRAMME
Guus Jansen – Mestra (2007)
Virtual poem by Tonnus Oosterhoff
“At last all means, as all provisions, fail'd;
For the disease
by remedies
prevail'd;
His muscles with
a furious bite he
tore,
Gorg'd his own tatter'd flesh, and gulph'd his gore.
Wounds were his feast, his life to life a prey,
Supporting Nature by its own decay. “
Ovid, Metamorphoses, Book VIII
Ned McGowan - Workshop (2004)
Susanna Borsch, solo recorder & electronics
McGowan decided to exploit the contrast of sound sources to the hilt: the challenge, he
says, “was to find a way to blend the very subtle color of the recorder with the delicious
variety of dirty machine sounds. To accomplish that I made use of
its strengths, namely those of human expression and speed”. The
piece falls into five linked sections, each offering a different model of
the relationship between recorder and machine, running the gamut
from sharp contrast to integration, from fight-for-supremacy to
coexistence and cooperation (cog and machine).
Michael Gordon - Industry (2007 version)
Monica Germino, adapted acoustic violin with Tube
Screamer (distortion) and effects
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At the request of the composer, Monica Germino created this definitive, exclusive violin
version of Industry.
“After the Russian Revolution, there was a period where Russian
composers tried to make pieces that sounded like factory sounds.
When I wrote Industry, I was thinking about the Industrial
Revolution, technology, how instruments are tools and how
industry has crept up on us and is all of a sudden overwhelming. I
had this vision of a 100-foot cello made out of steel suspended
from the sky, a cello the size of a football field, and, in the piece,
the cello becomes a hugely distorted sound. The fact that the
piece is difficult to play is an understatement.”
-Michael Gordon, about “Industry”
Klas Torstensson - Urban Solo (1991 – revised 2009)
Michaela Riener - solo voice
Urban solo is composed in two parts: two songs that illustrate
contradicting musical worlds. The first song, lyrical in
character, is based on the Libanese song Abu Zeluf, from
which the composer took most of his vocal sounds.
In direct contrast to the “urban poetics” of the first song, the
composer draws upon the flair of big cities in the second
song. Musically, references to hip hop abound, with a plethora
of percussive elements integrated with a clever choreography.
Louis Andriessen – Workers Union
Tatiana Koleva - solo percussion (2008 version, with installation &
soundtrack)
The score of Workers Union gives performer(s)
specific rhythms without specific pitches; the
challenge of choosing their own notes for the duration
is part of the way the piece acts out his political
intensity. Andriessen's performance notes include the
instruction: "Only in the case of every player playing
with such an intention that their part is an essential
one, the work will succeed; just as in the political work."
This version of Workers Union is for percussion installation and soundtrack, and is based
on the idea of collectivism. Work and the Workers are present and performed in the audio
track. The player becomes a part of the performing and theatrical mechanism as well as of
the working team.
Cornelis de Bondt – Sweet Love (2007)
“switch on - turn off”
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Though all industrial mass production necessarily eventuates in standardization, the
production of popular music can be called "industrial" only in its promotion and distribution,
whereas the act of producing a song-hit still remains in a handicraft stage.
Th.W.Adorno, “On popular music”, I, 17
In Industrial Landscapes, musicians of ELECTRA emphasize and unite their individual
powers, both as ensemble players and as soloists. The ensemble pieces are written for
ELECTRA, and the solo works are specially arranged or composed for each of them. Each
of the pieces is a dramatic performance, incorporating such elements as distortion,
electronics, pure metal installation (scaffolding) and the fragility and strength of human
voice versus mechanism and industry.
The projection of Tonnus Oosterhoff’s ‘floating poem’ Mestra will guide the public through
the show.
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