by Seby D’Souza
Soundfestival returned to Aberdeen, celebrating its 20th year of bringing contemporary music to the Granite City. The festival ran from the 19th to the 27th of October, featuring compositions and performers from across Europe. Many of these gigs had world premieres of pieces written specifically for Sound, providing opportunities for musicians and audiences alike to experience works at the forefront of contemporary music.
While soundfestival opens its doors to all who wish to attend, some may find the works on display to be challenging listens. However, these can also be some of the most rewarding shows. The poster child for these concerts is Roland Dahinden’s ‘Theatre of the Mind’, performed by Gareth Davis (bass clarinet) and Mikuláš Mrva (electronics). The piece explores the idea of being trapped in one’s own head, with a focus on the difficulties that people living with Parkinson’s disease experience as they lose motor function. Davis and Mrva work to create a wide bank of clarinet timbres that develop and playback throughout the piece to create a deeply unsettling texture.
Contemporary music can sometimes lean into this unnerving sound, yet soundfestival had much to offer for those with a different palette. The words “harpsichord concert” may scare away those who aren’t looking to hear Baroque music, but with its context in the festival, it could certainly pique curiosity. Tiffany Vong’s spotlight concert saw her playing a collection of works from contemporary composers Mingdu Li, Nikodem Rodzeń and Alison Beattie. The harpsichord can be a very limiting instrument to write for, taking away the ability to play dynamics of any kind. To contest this, all three composers utilised contemporary harmony and rhythm to great effect. Of these, Rodzeń’s ‘Soundlapse / a ruin for solo harpsichord’ was a personal favourite. The use of idiomatic harpsichord techniques in a contemporary context provided familiar ground for the Baroque fan while satiating those looking for new music. Vong’s execution of the pieces was exceptional and served as the gold standard for a soundfestival concert: innovative, approachable and subversive.
The Blue Lamp hosted jazz trio Sekoya, a group who draw on folk, classical, soul and funk to create their own, very well-defined sound. They had an unrivalled chemistry which resulted in tight grooves and well-coordinated solos. Their handling of melody was especially notable, creating earworms with both composed and improvised passages.
At Aberdeen Music Hall, Dame Evelyn Glennie performed with the New London Chamber Ensemble. Her first piece, James Keane’s ‘Piece for Dance’, stood out as a highlight, commanding the stage with a confidence and attitude befitting a performer of her calibre. The performance was explosive in a way only a percussionist could achieve and made for a high-energy, dramatic showing.
Another stellar piece was Graham Fitkin’s ‘Unleash Britain’s Potential’, an irony-steeped jab at the rule-of-three and its prevalence in today’s society. The piece kicked off soundfestival (in the city, at least) and was performed by Any Enemy, Con Anima choir and the Get Creative ensemble. The latter of these was made up of young musicians aged 8-18, and showcased soundfestival’s ability to unite musicians of all ages and abilities under the banner of contemporary music.
One of the festival’s more unique performances was ‘Beginner’s Guide to Slow Travel’ by the Kirkos Ensemble. The concert started with the group and audience leaving King’s Pavilion to introduce themselves, their philosophies and their piece. The idea of slow travel is not only related to cutting back on emissions, but to taking the time to appreciate the journey. To briefly summarise, the show used collective improvisation and performance art to create and diffuse tension. The most striking idea explored in the concert was when performance artist Joan Somers Donnelly walked into the space carrying a number of chairs and proceeded to walk around collecting more, before inevitably dropping them all over the floor to a crescendo from the rest of the ensemble. Though critics of theatrics in music may have found Slow Travel to be dull, personally, I found the whole experience was the most moving show soundfestival had to offer.
Speaking of theatrics, my favourite performance of all was Kate Soper’s ‘Ipsa Dixit’, performed by Stephanie Lamprea (soprano), Richard Craig (flute), Fergus Hetherington (violin), Darren Gallacher (percussion) and Anne Kjær (actor). It drew on numerous inspirations, from opera to philosophy to comedy to Greek art, all wrapped up in a virtuosic execution of extended instrumental techniques and acting. From the moment Lamprea sauntered on stage in character to the final rapturous applause, I couldn’t stop smiling. The performance was so packed full of gags like miming playing, purposefully stiff acting and depictions of lunacy among artists that one could easily enjoy the work without understanding the quoted texts or the difficulty of the piece’s execution. It’s these features, in addition to the comedy, that make this my favourite of the soundfestival works.
Performing after all of the above was never going to be an easy feat, yet Brodie McCash and Con Anima Chamber Choir couldn’t have ended it on a sweeter note. Conducted by soundfestival founder Pete Stollery, the concert was a double bill, with three pieces in Aberdeen Art Gallery and then the same three in Cowdray hall with an additional piece where the group were joined by three extra percussionists. The use of space in the first concert was enamouring. By utilising the Art Gallery as a venue, audience members could situate themselves around the hall or on the balcony, making for a unique concert-going experience. The cherry on the cake was the second performance. While Cowdray Hall and the fact that this was a second listen did lose some of the intrigue that elevated the first so much, the additional piece more than made up for this. Featuring virtuosic marimba lines coloured by the timbres of the choir and extra percussionists, Gene Koshinski’s ‘Concerto for Choir and Marimba’ received the standing ovation it deserved and cemented the concerted as one of the most memorable of soundfestival 2024.
