On Thursday, March 8, at 7:30 p.m., Swedish composer Ellen Arkbro will perform at the Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC). The concert will feature the premiere of a new piece written for electric guitar and algorithmic synthesis that Arkbro has developed over a two-week residency at the center.
Ellen Arkbro is a Stockholm-based musical alchemist whose work oscillates between the pop music of the ’90s and the American minimalism of the ’60s, while exploring microtonal realms that blur the standard tunings and harmonies of Western music. Her practice takes the form of compositions for early-music ensembles as well as long-duration performances of synthesized dream music, including one piece composed to last 26 days.
Her sound work is heavily informed by her studies in “just intonation” tuning with La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela in New York and with Marc Sabat in Berlin. She describes her 2017 album titled for organ and brass as “a very slow and reduced blues music” written for the 17th-century Sherer-Orgel organ in Tangermünde, Germany, paired with microtonal arrangements for horn, tuba, and trombone.
Arkbro’s performance comes at the outset of a series of EMPAC residencies during which she will develop a new composition for EMPAC’s Wave Field Synthesis 3-D audio speaker system. The piece will premiere at EMPAC’s 10 Year Celebration in October 2018.
For more information, visit empac.rpi.edu. For press inquiries, contact Josh Potter at pottej2@rpi.edu.