Asamisimasa performs Øyvind Torvund and Laurence Crane

Asamisimasa was founded in 2002 by musicians sharing a passion and interest in avant-garde music and its history. Since then, the ensemble has premiered numerous cross-media works especially written for them, often contextualised with classical repertoire and historical avant-garde work. Their first recording, with music by Simon Steen-Andersen, was awarded the Spellemann (“Norwegian Grammy”) in 2012 for best contemporary music record. The Norwegian composer Øyvind Torvund has been among Asamismasa’s most significant collaborators. This new record, “Neon Forest Space”, marks Torvund’s first release, and is characterised by a personal and playful blend of elements from folk music, punk rock, baroque ornamentation, video game soundscapes and samples of field recordings featuring animals, forests and cars. The second part of this concert will feature the British composer Laurence Crane’s meditative work “John White in Berlin”. Asamisimasa has collaborated closely with Crane since 2008, and their first collaborative recording, “Sound of Horse”, will be released on the Belgian label Sub Rosa in January 2016. Asamisimasa is supported by Arts Council Norway.

https://soundcloud.com/asamisimasa

Chaines

CHAINES (Cee Haines) is a musician based in Manchester, UK, who writes surreal and fantastical electronica and electro-acoustic music. Their recent album, 'The King', was receieved with enthusiastic critical praise; it was ranked in FACT magazine's top 25 albums of 2018's first quarter, was made Boomkat's album of the week, and Robert Barry of The Wire called it 'vast in scope, rich in execution'. As well as their solo electronic work, CHAINES' has also worked extensively with the London Contemporary Orchestra. Commissions for the LCO have always been electro-acoustic in nature, using both small and orchestral scale ensembles with electronics, premiering works at venues such as The Royal Albert Hall (BBC Proms 2018), Tate Modern (Uniqulo's Tate Lates series 2017) and the Roundhouse (Ron Arad's Curtain Call 2016). They have been in residency with SAY award winner Anna Meredith and Grammy Award winner Imogen Heap, improvising, performing and producing audio and video. They graduated The Royal Northern College of Music in 2013 with a 1st class honours in Composition and Contemporary Music. They also identify as non-binary, so the 'they' in this biography is not a grammatical error.

Fresh Klang: Mira Benjamin

Cassandra Miller’s solo violin piece “for mira” was composed for Mira Benjamin in 2012. The first performance was given at La Sala Rossa in Montréal as part of the nu:nord project. The music takes a short sample of Kurt Cobain’s singing voice and reveals facets of its quality and structure through repetition. When Benjamin first asked Miller what the piece was “about”, she replied, “This is a piece about your masculinity.” Mira Benjamin is a Canadian violinist, researcher and new-music instigator. She performs new and experimental music, specialising in microtonal string performance practice. Benjamin co-directs nu:nord, an international community-building project that engages artists from Canada, Norway and the UK. Originally from Vancouver, Mira lived for ten years in Montréal, where she was a member of Quatuor Bozzini. She moved to London in 2014. She gratefully acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts in 2015-16.

https://vimeo.com/49647625