Lemur and Friends will perform in Sasha Waltz / Terri Riley’s In C, a choreographic continuation of the democratic principles of this minimalist score. Sasha Waltz has transferred the concept to dance, creating 53 movement phrases for use in a structured improvisation with clear rules, echoing the structure of the musical score.
CRITICAL BANDS is the culmination of Lemur’s decade-long exploration of physical, abstract, and ephemeral sonic spaces. Recorded by more than fifty musicians in different sites and configurations across several countries, the album exposes deep layers of sonic exploration. Complex instrumental materials are captured and filtered through different architectonic spaces, revealing a modular, site-specific composition practice.
The album was recorded in Nidarosdomen (Trondheim), Korskirken (Bergen), Sofienberg kirke (Oslo), LiteraturHaus (Copenhagen), Notam (Oslo), Harpa (Reykjavik), and Athletic Sound (Halden) and subsequently combined, edited and re-composed by the ensemble.
The work is realized with performances from outstanding musicians from Norway and abroad:
Bjørnar Habbestad (flutes), Hild Sofie Tafjord (horn), Lene Grenager (cello), Michael Francis Duch (double bass), Dirk Bruinsma (soprano sax), Eivind Lønning (trumpet), Morten Barrikmo (clarinets), Tanja Orning (cello) and Robin Hayward (tuba), Anders Rove, Jostein Bolås Brødreskift, David Andersson, Björn Petersson, Morten Berger Stai, Kristian B. Jacobsen (double bass), Ellen Holmås, Astrid Solberg, Astri Hoffmann-Tollaas, Johannes Borchgrevink, Marianne Baudouin Lie (cello), Daniel Formo (organ) Lotte Anker, Torben Snekkestad (sax), Liza Gibbs (oboe) and Anna Klett (clarinet). Robin Hayward, Martin Taxt and Peder Simonsen (microtonal tubas). Ole Henrik Moe (violin, viola, piccolo violin and Octobass) and Kari Rønnekleiv (violin).
Recorded by Thorolf Thuestad, Bjørnar Habbestad, Lene Grenager, Thomas Hukkelberg, John Hegre, Tor Breivik and Christian Obermayer. Edited by Thorolf Thuestad and Christian Obermeyer. Produced by Bjørnar Habbestad and Lene Grenager.
Critical Bands IIa (2023)
A sonic superimposition for amplified soloist quartet, sinfonietta and electronics.
Premiered at the Erkiti∂ festival in Reykjavik, november 2023. Caput ensemble, conducted by Gu∂ni Franzson.
Critical Bands IIa stems from Lemurs decade-long work with physical, abstract and ephemeral sonic spaces. Combining a fixed score with recorded and processed material, the composition draws on Lemurs highly personal improvisatory language as a tool for spatial exploration.
Lemur joins forces with fellow musicians from Ensemble NEON, asamisimasa and Aksiom in a pumping rendering of Terry Rileys In C.
The minimalist masterpiece of 1964 is the backbone of Sasha Waltz’ new coreography. Together with her dancers she developed choreographic material in similarly variable structure, always leaving room for new variations. This is an experimental, constantly evolving process that once again reconceives and refines Sasha Waltz & Guests’ long-standing approach as well as the dialogue between dance, music and space. The piece is performed by Nagelhus Schia Productions, with members from Sasha Waltz and guests.
Lemur with friends:
Bjørnar Habbestad, flute Hanne Rekdal, flute Hild Sofie Tafjord, horn Inga Byrkjeland, cello Jonas Cambien, piano Michael Francis Duch, bass Morten Barrikmo, clarinets Silje Aker Johnsen, soprano Solmund Nystabakk, guitar
Huset spiller! Bomuldsfabriken kunsthall 27. October 2018
Huset spiller! – or House music! brings together children, young people and professional artists in a large-scale happening organised by the music collective LEMUR. This is the third time that Bomuldsfabriken kunsthall and LEMUR have organised a creative meeting across art forms and age groups.
The production incorporates dancer and choreographer Siri Jøntvedt, visual artist Ellen Røed, composers Thorolf Thuestad and Jon Halvor Bjørnseth, and LEMUR’s Bjørnar Habbestad (flutes), Hild Sofie Tafjord (horn), Lene Grenager (cello) and Michael Duch (double bass), all interacting with children and young people aged 4 to 19. This year’s version has been composed for and with Bomuldsfabrikens spaces, in collaboration with Villa Mathilda kindergarten and music, dance and drama students from Dahlske upper secondary school in Grimstad.
Since 2011, LEMUR has curated the PB1898 concert series at Bomuldsfabriken. For several years they have been working on translating different forms of spatiality into musical works. In collaboration with Arup Acoustic in New York, they developed Critical Band, a site-specific work for highly reverberant spaces that is recomposed for each performance. In Mikrophonie the ensemble explored the internal space and acoustics of instruments, and in Lemuria they collaborated with composer Luigi Nono and architect Renzo Piano on the use of islands as a compositional and spatial metapho
Finally time to premiere our three-part marathon piece: Symphonie magnetophoniqe starts at 9 o’clock at Nationaltheateret metro station, continues at noon on Wessels plass, before culminating in Marmorsalen, Sentralens biggest concert hall.
Symphonie magnétophonique (2022)
A three part sound odyssey for transportation hub, public square, concert hall, electronic sound media, four soloists and electronics.
Premiered at the Ultima festival 21 september 2022.
Symphonie Magnétophonique takes place in three different public spaces: a transport hub, a town square and a concert hall. The contrasting social environments of these places and their different listening conditions is woven into the composition: Wireless microphones concealed inside the instruments enable the audience, wearing headphones, to eavesdrop on a ‘secret’ soundscape. Passing audiences and assistants create a continuously changing configuration of sound sources and listening positions. eleme
AMOR/LEMUR finds the Glasgow quartet AMOR in partnership with Norwegian improvising ensemble LEMUR to hopeful and ecstatic effect. Conceived before the onset of Covid 19 but finished during spring lockdown, their eponymous EP is the most loose, alive and elevated recording in AMOR’s catalog. The AMOR/LEMUR collaboration takes the template of throbbing avant disco expanded upon on previous recording, lifting it into new territories, with new tonalities and unexpected turns on the journey.
Following a revelatory concert in Glasgow in January 2020 wherein the two sets of musicians met and performed together for the first time, a recording session was arranged, resulting in the most elevated permutation of AMOR’s art to date.
Richard Youngs, vocals and piano Luke Fowler, synths and samplers Michael Duch, bass Paul Thomson, drums and percussion Bjørnar Habbestad, flutes Hild Sofie Tafjord, horn Lene Grenager, cello
Recorded at Glasgow’s Green Door studios. Mixed at Chem 19 by Paul Savage Mastered by Rashad Becker at Clunk Artwork by Oliver Pitt Released on Night School, January 29, 2021
Delian modes (2021)
A site specific work for quartett, electronics, portable listening devices and mobile audience
Premiered at Brannfjellet, Oslo, in collaboration with Konsertforeninga, 2021.
Delian Modes is a composition for four instrumentalists, portable speakers and a mobile audience. At the intersection of sound walks, radio plays and concert music, the audience is guided through different forest environments in encounters with ever new combinations of musicians and electronic sound sources. The work is inspired by the sound design of pioneering British composer Delia Derbyshire.
ALLOY is Lemur´s first collaboration with German pianist Reinhold Friedl. Fusing their practices and their particular taste for live sonic interaction, Friedl and Lemur found common ground instantly.
Meeting in 2015 for a series of concerts and a session in the studios of the Norwegian Academy of Music, the five musicians share experiences from working at the intersection of composed and improvised musics. A combined focus on the use of extended playing techniques, a keen taste for form experiments and the utilization of all different group formations within the available quintet, resulted in an organic but also strictly diciplined album, divided into seven distinct tracks or Components.
The title, Alloy, reflects the pressures and intensities found in such first meetings, where strong expressions and different perspectives are merged.
Recorded by Bjørnar Habbestad. Edited by Bjørnar Habbestad, Hild Sofie Tafjord and Reinholdt Friedl. Mixed by Bjørnar Habbestad. Mastered by Christian Obermayer.
