A new programme, 'Timestretch', from the energetic and inventive electric guitar quartet Zwerm from Belgium, whose recent CD of music by Larry Polansky on New World Records was described by The Wire as "an obvious contender for album of the year". One single 'Tooaytood' by Polansky takes only two seconds, but contains more notes than Philip Glass' Music In Similar Motion, which lasts more than 400 times as long.

This programme is dedicated to composers who concentrate their attention on the experience and perception of time by means of sound. Compressing and decompressing of experienced time; synchronisation of different tempos; the idea of competition; these are the musical principles that Timestretch focuses on. This music asks questions: from which point do we desire change? from which point can't we handle a change of musical information anymore? What happens during repetition?

The famous Dutch writer Gerard Reve once said "life is short, but the days are long" - this appears to be a musical truth as well as a poetic one.

Larry Polansky - Tooytoods
Hans Roels - new work
Guy De Bièvre - new work
James Tenney - Septet
Philip Glass - Music in Similar Motion
Larry Polansky - Ontslaan


Zwerm: Toon Callier, Bruno Nelissen, Johannes Westendorp, Matthias Koole, electric guitars

Production: Champ d'Action

This is the third event in Brunel@Café Oto, a new series of events organised in collaboration with the Music Department at Brunel University to coincide with a visit by the artists presenting new work there.

Zwerm on Myspace