LEMUR on LEMUR

MD: I think the idea of composing together is yet another component in the investigations that characterise Lemur. It might not have been an articulated aim, but in the compositional process of Critical Band we worked as usual, only we this time made all the rules beforehand rather than on stage.

HST: It’s hard to say exactly where a project starts. In a way Critical Band is an extension of Lemur’s activities. We like investigating things together and look at where improvisation can start. To investigate a room became one such starting point, looking for the idiosyncrasies that an acoustician would remove.This has always been our method, to investigate and experiment with everything we can. Register, orchestration, timbre, sounds.

BH: Considering our scores: Some people see them as a loose, poetic descriptions of the music and not an proper score. Now, on one level that’s true, but what is lost here are all the things that are defined by the rehearsal process. It’s not a coincidence what take place in the end, the material comes out of a rigorous rehearsal process. Yes, it is true that the text is open to interpretation, but the rehearsal process, our comments, the way we practice all contribute towards the composition. So, there is freedom in this form of notation, but a freedom that is governed by a kind of social control that comes from working together.

LG: I think it was a great strength that we didn’t write the score down until we had finished the rehearsals. I had actually imagined that we might have a sketch of the form ready when we met the singers for the first time. But we didn’t. We had a lot of material, a vague idea of maybe something a bit worn like this, we had a lot of lyrics, a theme song, a matrix, different entrances, we transcribed the calm song from the previous record etc. But I felt that what we achieved in this composition process was to be open to input from our own material, right up to the final phase.

…