Releases and some

Hearbaricum Fields CD and digital release on LAWO Classics November 2023. https://lawostore.no/cd/jacobsson-ewa-electronics-karlsson-kenneth-piano-ewa-jacobsson-hearbaricum-fields-25517v

Two texts in booklet:

Excerps from Hild Borchgrevink s ́text: TRANSFORMING A GRAND PIANO

In Jarring Sounds two Steinway grand pianos meet. One of the pianos is situated in the Marble Hall at Sentralen in Oslo, the space in which the music on this CD was recorded. That instrument is activated by Kenneth Karlsson who gives life to Ewa Jacobsson’s musical score. The other piano is invisible yet present in the room in the form of pre-recorded material. This second instrument was made in Germany around 1948 and belonged to Ewa Jacobsson’s parents. It went missing for several decades. Jarring Sounds elaborates the almost magical aspect of this tale when the two instruments are connected.

Jarring Sounds is divided into four movements. In the first two, pianist Kenneth Karlsson plays from the score, precisely synchronized with the adapted recordings. In the third movement, the 24 loudspeakers take over the stage with electronic sound and text fragments. This section merges into the final movement, an intimate dialogue between improvising pianist, prerecorded material, and four spatial objects with built-in sound sources. Ewa Jacobsson activates the sound sources in real time.

Photo ©Øystein Thorvaldsen

Excerps from Eivind Slettemeås ́ text: THE WEAK ANGLE

«The title Hearbaricum Fields refers to the fact that the sound material used in the composition comes from five different “fields” – from central Europe to the continent’s periphery – creating a collision of possible original hierarchies of meaning that are transformed and moved around. Or they can be experienced as a dramatic performance without a script, in which sounds are sent flying across the room and they either hit you or remain as unexploded shells in your subconscious. « …

The premier performance of Hearbaricum Fields was at NOTAM’s 25th anniversary celebration during the Ultima festival in Oslo, 2019. The audience was gathered inside an installation consisting of a dome rigged for ambisonic sound with 40 loudspeakers, surrounded by four prepared objects or sound sculptures, so that the three-dimensional space itself was the medium. All fields recordings and extensive processing and mixing is composed with this setting in mind. Hearbaricum Fields in stereo is re-composed for the CD medium and setting.

Photo ©Ewa J Sopranotronic Prod.