Skogen – Celebrating 20 Years with a World Premiere

Skogen is a Swedish ensemble operating at the intersection of contemporary chamber music and improvisation. Now celebrating its twentieth anniversary, the group presents the world premiere of Magnus Granberg’s work Trouble, Had it All My Days. The piece takes its point of departure from an aria in Bach’s cantata BWV 21 (Ich hatte viel Bekümmerniß), while its title is borrowed from a line in a song by the American blues singer and guitarist Mississippi John Hurt.

Skogen works in the borderland between contemporary chamber and improvised music. Their music, emerging in the interplay between composition and improvisation as well as collective and individual processes, is a poetic practice that subtly – and seemingly paradoxically – unites order with chaos, unity with diversity, and the past with the present.

Since 2012, the ensemble has released eight CDs on the renowned British label Another Timbre and has performed at festivals including Norway’s Ultima, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival in England, Germany’s Splitter Music Festival, and the Ulrichsberger Kaleidophon in Austria.

This concert is made possible with support with support from the STIM Forward Fund, the Helge Ax:son Johnson Foundation, the Längmanska Cultural Foundation, the City of Stockholm, and the Swedish Arts Council.