New Friday – Songs without Voices

New Friday is a concert series for the curious listener – a chance to explore today’s most imaginative and inventive music. At this concert, we meet ensemble neo – a group that, since its founding nearly twenty years ago, has been at the forefront of exploring new ways of writing and thinking about music. The ensemble works continuously with composers, both nationally and internationally, and has premiered over 400 works to date.

At this concert, ensemble neo, conducted by B Tommy Andersson, performs music that in several cases draws on the written word as its source of inspiration. Composers have long listened closely for literature’s whispers, while the written word seeks its reflection in music. As long as stories are told and poems written, composers will find inspiration in language – even when the words are neither sung nor spoken, their meanings resonate in the sound itself.

Besides Johan Ullén’s Stravinsky- and commedia dell’arte-inspired music, ensemble neo premieres three new works. Ett ljud som bara jag kan (A Sound Known Only to Me) by Fredrik Hedelin is a fantasy based on a poem by the Iranian-Swedish poet Jila Mossaed. Kim Hedås’s Camera (Room) is inspired by the Romanian writer Mircea Cărtărescu’s novel Solenoid, in which there is a house with a infinite number of ever-changing rooms. Tree of Water by the Chinese-born composer Ying Wang, now based and working in Berlin, “is a poetic and beautiful title that fits perfectly in this context”, explains the composer.

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Come early, stay late – the bar will be open before, during and after the concert with drinks and appetizers.