Popular Premiere

Associate Professor Matthew Shlomowitz tells us about a forthcoming premiere in his Popular Contexts series:

In 2015 I composed a twenty-five minute work for the Norwegian percussionist Håkon Stene, commissioned by The Norwegian Programme for Artistic Research. The work is the eighth volume in my Popular Contexts series, which combine pre-recorded sounds with live instrumental music to investigate aspects of everyday and popular culture. This volume is subtitled Five soundscapes for a contemporary percussionist. It will be premiered at the Ultraschall festival in Berlin on 22 January 2016 and broadcast live on German radio (Kulturradio vom rbb).

The performer plays MIDI drum kit, a sampler control pad, and an assortment of acoustic instruments such as vibraslap, crotales and glockenspiel, which sonically and conceptually interact with the recorded sound. The work is cast in five movements that are titled (1) Drummin’ in the Rain; (2) Comfortably Glock; (3) Session Drummer; (4) Exotic tourism in recorded sound history; and (5) Royalty Free.