duo pantoMorf at Aalborg Theater
Summary
A major asset in duo pantoMorf’s music is to play electronic musical instruments with the same gestural control as acoustic musical instruments. In a concert at the Aalborg International Theater Improvisation Festival the duo explored concepts such as improvisation, dialogues with sounds, timing, agonistic struggles, associations and re-contextualization, negotiations and distribution of roles with respect to actual playing situation.
Supported by
HSM, IT-Faculty, Swedish Research Council and Aalborg Theater
Description of project
More than ten years have passed since duo pantoMorf premiered in public at the Norberg Festival in Sweden. The duo consists of Palle Dahlstedt and Per Anders Nilsson. A major asset in the groups music is to play electronic musical instruments with the same amount of gestural control as with acoustic musical instruments, such as the piano and the saxophone, instruments that has been practiced and played extensively by Dahlstedt and Nilsson. At the core is an electronic instrument developed and played by both performers, the PressurePad, which is an integrated part of the duo, rather; the duo was created as a platform for developing and evaluate new kinds of electronic musical instrument. After ten years of extensively playing and performing with this instrument, who found its final form in 2008, it still offers its players musical possibilities and development potential that equals acoustic musical instruments. Furthermore, the core concept of the expressurePad has given rise to a whole family of electronic instruments developed by Dahlstedt. At this particularly concert at the Aalborg Theater, which was a somewhat unfamiliar context; an international theater improfestival. Theater improvisation turned out to have very much in common with duo pantoMorf’s ways of playing: improvisation of course, timing, agonistic struggles, dialogues with sounds, associations and re-contextualization, negotiations and distribution of roles with respect to actual playing situation just to mention a few connections. To enhance the theater context the duo also dressed in white lab coats, which underlined the experimental in the music performed. Seen in the rear-view mirror, the actual performance was clearly inspired and influenced by the theater context, more emphasis on dialogue then building homogenous sound textures. This notion was also apparent after the concert, where reactions from listeners emphasize perceived similarities between music performed and theater improvisation.
Type of work
Concert
Published in
Aalborg Theater, Denmark
Link to web site
https://aalborgteater.dk/event/international-improfestival/
Date
2017-03-24Creator
Nilsson, Per Anders
Dahlstedt, Palle
Keywords
Improvisation
electronic music
theater improvisation
Publication type
artistic work
Language
eng