The Swedish Scene – 50 Years EMS Stockholm (Symposium)

MATS LINDSTRÖM EMS – 50 YEARS (45‘)

The first part of the talk will deal with the first generation of electronic music in Sweden and the birth of EMS. The second will give an orientation on the current situation and activities at EMS.
Mats Lindström (*1960, Sweden) works as a composer and a musician, often with strains of live-electronics and with live performance, intermedia, scenic elements and visual arts as a complement to the music. He has worked both with music for theatre, opera, radio art and dance. Formerly an engineer in the electronics industry he has designed and constructed a number of unique electronic musical instruments and apparatuses. Some use light as a sound generating source. He teaches sound art and has given lectures worldwide on sound art and the history of the Swedish electronic music scene. During the 1990s he worked for the Fylkingen society, both as producer and as president. Since 2004 he is the artistic director of Elektronmusikstudion, EMS in Stockholm.
RONNIE SUNDIN RUNE LINDBLAD – A SWEDISH PIONEER (25‘)Rune Lindblad (1923–1991) was a Swedish composer of musique concrète and electronic music, and a visual artist. He first began composing in 1953 and composed over 200 works. His first piece, Party, is considered the first electroacoustic work created in Sweden. For three years he experimented with optics and sound, and produced five works using over 1800 meters of film./// On 14 February 1957, Lindblad, Sven-Eric Johansson, and Bruno Epstein put on the first concert of concrète and electronic music in Sweden at the Folkets Hus in Gothenburg. The audience responded poorly and demanded refunds. Critics referred to the music as ‚pure torture‘./// As a visual artist, he created paintings, drawings, etchings, collages, woodcuts, etc. Some of which adorn his albums./// Lindblad taught at University of Gothenburg. His students included Rolf Enström, Åke Parmerud, and Ulf Bilting.
Ronnie Sundin (*1973) has been recording and producing his own music for more than 20 years covering a wide range of styles within electronic and experimental music. During the second half of the 1990s he operated under the name Bad Kharma with a string of self-produced releases on his own BonBon Records imprint which showcased an interest in noisy tape collages combining influences from The Hafler Trio, Merzbow and Illusion of Safety. During the first half of the 2000s however, he investigated a gradually more and more quiet approach utilizing plenty of field recordings from his extensive archives combined with computer processed and electronic sounds in an attempt to create dreamlike, sensitive hypnagogic states presented on releases on critically acclaimed labels such as Ground Fault, Häpna, Antifrost and Komplott but in recent years we have seen him revisit to the more loud noise oriented field he explored earlier./// Ronnie
is also the author and illustrator of the comic book on Rune Lindblad that was released on the occasion of this festival!

WIEBKE SPIEKER AN INTRODUCTION INTO THE LIFE AND WORK OF ÅKE PARMERUD (35‘)

Wiebke Spieker will give a (short) overview about Åke Parmerud‘s biography in the first part of her talk. As a composer working in the electronic and electroacoustic music scene in Sweden since the late 1970s, the developments of the three institutions Fylkingen, EMS, and Sveriges Radio have been decisive for his biography. To get a complete overview about Parmerud‘s work, she will extend her considerations to the subjects ‚installations‘ and ‚stage art‘./// For his music and media art works Parmerud won several prizes, including the Giga-Hertz- and Walter-Fink-Prize awarded by the ZKM./// At the end she will shortly present the two works that won the Giga-Hertz-Prize (2008: La Vie Mécanique) and the Walter-Fink-Prize (2011: The Seventh Sense (together with Mireille Leblanc), and the comissioned works by these prizes.
Wiebke Spieker studied musicology and Scandinavien studies at University of Cologne (bachelor degree since 2012). Therefore she travelled to Sweden to study the history of electronic and electroacoustic music at the EMS Stockholm and to do an interview with Åke Parmerud in Gothenburg for her bachelor thesis. In October 2012 she proceeded with her studies in musicology for her upcoming master degree. Besides her studies, she is working in the field of concert organisation, mostly for contemporary music and (urban) sound art.

JENS HEDMAN THE BEAST WITH TWO HEADS (25‘)

The spatial aspects of music are very important in Jens Hedman‘s composing. Many of his works explore space and movement utilizing multi-channel techniques. He will talk about various approaches he has used and play some examples from his works. He will also talk about the ideas behind, and techniques used in composing, the piece The Beast with Two Heads played in the festival.
Jens Hedman is a long time established name in Swedish electroacoustic music. His music has been performed at festivals, concerts and on radio all over the world and has received several important prizes in international music competitions. Hedman composes both instrumental and electroacoustic music as well as sound art. He often combines his music with other artistic expressions, collaborating with writers, visual artists, choreographers, architects and other composers./// Hedman has been teaching at EMS in Stockholm for more than 20 years as well as at IDKA, Kapellsbergs music school. He was president of the Society for Electro Acoustic Music in Sweden 2001–08. Hedman studied EAM-composition at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm and sound art at Stockholm Academy of Dramatic Arts.
LISE-LOTTE NORELIUS MY CHOICE OF SOUNDS (20‘)
When she was thinking about what kind of sounds to use for her Zirkonium piece You Are the Flower, Lise-Lotte Norelius suddenly remembered a sound which she used 14 years ago in a Swedish play about Ulrike Meinhof – a scene where this sound was very important for the scary atmosphere. In the Zirkonium piece it created a very different atmosphere, space instead of a prison cell – not scary at all.
Lise-Lotte Norelius is one of Stockholm‘s most active electronic musicians. Besides composing new music for other musicians and electronics, she performs both solo and in collaboration with other musicians and artists from different fields. She is one of the founders of the DIY-ensemble Syntjuntan who got a lot of attention for their workshops and concerts with textile instruments.

HANNA HARTMAN KING POWER POLE (25‘)

On working with non narrtive sounds in music.Mats Lindström: EMS - 50 Years
Hanna Hartman is a Swedish sound artist, composer and performer living in Berlin. She has composed works for radio and instrumentalists, made sound sculptures and numerous performances all over the world. She seeks to reveal hidden correspondences between the most diverse auditive impressions and in new constellations she creates extraordinary worlds of sound.

Program

11:00–11:45 Mats Lindström: EMS - 50 Years
12:00–12:25 Ronnie Sundin: Rune Lindblad - A Swedish Pioneer
12:40–13:15 Wiebke Spieker: An Introduction into the Life and Work of Åke Parmerud
14:15–14:40 Jens Hedman: The Beast with Two Heads
14:55–15:15 Lise-Lotte Norelius: MY Choise of Sound
15:30–15:55 Hanna Hartman: King Power Pole
16:10–16:50 Joachim Nordwall: Get Into an iDEAL Zone with Joachim Nordwall