Sten Sandell

VERTIKALAKUSTIK MED HORISONTELL PROSODI

The music/texts/pictures of Sten Sandell are always situated in a boundary landscape or at a critical point. He describes how important it is to always be able to change direction, to chose a new path in music – create unforeseen expressions in the moment. Nevertheless I often perceive his works and performances as perfectly controlled - a mastery of the dramaturgy of the moment as well as razor-sharp forming of details. His research and practice show how the combinations of unforeseen decisions and different choices of paths, of performative text and discursive art, can create an aggregated coherence, new context.

Anna Lindal, Editorial committee

Biography

Sten Sandell is a composer, musician, producer. Doctor of Philosophy In Fine Arts in Musical Performance and Interpretation, University of Gothenburg, 2013. Member of The Royal Academy of Music in Sweden.

Abstract: Free improvised music allows me as a musician to be able to change direction at any time. Free improvised music is the only form of music where I can completely change my way of playing depending on the character of the room or the space. The room becomes a co-player that I can either go along with or resist. In my project I investigate different ways to explore and clarify how changes of direction in free improvisation can be performed and how the spatial conditions and other conditions affect the way the music is played. The form of improvised music I am examining is extremely dialogue-oriented, where action and reaction within the dialogue in the room play a vital role in the process. What I would like to try out and demonstrate is how a sonic language entirely based on the participants’ sensitivity can be moulded, i.e. a language that is altogether based on the listening and playing of a person in a particular space. The sounding image process that becomes a link to the narrative text. Through the use of sound, text and image, and all their mixed forms, and drawing from my experiences as a musician and composer, I hope it will be possible for you to follow this twisty way toward something.