Soprano - Caroline Joy
Violin - Julia Stein

Series of Songs #1

Metanoia - Live recording - First performance by Ensemble Recherche, Freiburg, sept 2013

Fugue on Коробейники, also known as the theme from Tetris. 8-bit version.


Tetris Fugue

Performed by KMH Orchestra conducted by Jakob Aspenström

Held by Threads

*****, Concerto n°10 for Brass Band, Percussion & Onde Martenot.
This pièce without title is a true invitation to emotion. Several times I asked myself how could I call a work that tends to speak of emotion, passion and feelings. But for this, my choice was just stopped on the title "*****". Why? Because it is to me quite impossible to name the exact moment when our heart is beating deeply, when we feel an indescribable element who slides under the skin, when a tear escapes quietly from a sight, when our hair stands on all over our body, when our soul takes possession of our flesh. 
Being fascinated by this phenomenon that art causes to humans when it is understood and crossed, the opportunity to work on this mesmerizing creation really pleased me.

Initially, I wrote this piece so instinctivly and probably without worrying about the main problem; The emotion must be induced in the audience, but first among the performers. To transmit a feeling, a mood, the musician must first understand the literature, seize it and give back to the audience in the most accomplished playing. 
The harmonies are nothing. Counterpoint is only mathematical. And orchestration is an artifice. The alchemist then merges these elements to make a Total Art, an Emotion. 
Specifically, after a couple of different versions of this piece and weeks thinking about my goal, this latest version has finally been accepted. There is scarcely no relation between the first test and the final Full Score. 
Questioning the composer was daily and collaboration with the performers was a terrific learning experience.

*****, Concerto n°10 for BB, Percussion & Onde Martenot

Performed by the Swedish Radiochoir and KMH Kammarkör at St Jacobs kyrka in Stockholm on april 11 2014. Conducted by Philip Faber.

This piece is written as a dedication to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and as a reminder of the things he said. The text comes from a sermon called “But if not” that Dr. King gave at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta on November 5, 1967.  He tells a story from the book of Daniel where the three Israelites, Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego, prisoners of the mighty king Nebuchadnezzar is commanded to bow before a golden image. They refuse, saying that even if their own god should abandon them they will not give in to evil.

Dr. King goes on and explains that these men practiced civil disobedience, which is one of the main tools in pacifist movements such as Gandhi’s cause for an independent India, and Dr. Kings own fight for civil rights in America. He also makes a reference to Nazi-Germany in the clause that human laws sometimes are out of harmony with a higher, moral law, hence calling for actions of civil disobedience.

But the most important point and the main essence of the 23-minute sermon is, in my opinion, best described in this passage:

 “Religion is not a bargaining experience. It is not a commercial relationship. [  ]…If you're doing right merely to keep from going to something that traditional theology has called hell then you aren't doing right. If you do right merely to go to a condition that theologians have called heaven, you aren't doing right. If you are doing right to avoid pain and to achieve happiness and pleasure then you aren't doing right. Ultimately you must do right because it's right to do right. And you got to say "But if not." You must love ultimately because it's lovely to love. You must be just because it's right to be just. You must be honest because it's right to be honest… [  ]… Think of love. Think of friendship. These things are not based on “if”, but they are based on “though”.




But If Not - Dubbelkör

Chamber opera for soprano, bass-baritone and ensemble. 

Concert performance at Music Biennale Zagreb festival 2015 with
Monika Cerovčec(S), Krešimir Stražanac(B-Bar), MBZ Festivalensemble, dir Berislav Šipuš.

Traum

Lux Aeterna (2017) was commissioned by Gustaf Sjökvists Chamber Choir with funds from Kulturrådet (Swedish Arts Council).  World premiere 14 October 2017 at Ersta Kyrka, Stockholm, Sweden. Performed here by Gustaf Sjökvists Kammarkör and Hägerstens Kammarkör, 3 Feb 2018, cond. Kerstin Börjeson.

Lux æterna luceat eis, Domine:
Cum Sanctis tuis in æternum:
quia pius es.
Requiem æternam dona eis, Domine:
et lux perpetua luceat eis.
Cum Sanctis tuis in æternum:
quia pius es.

Lux Aeterna

Before I began composing this piece for saxophonist Linn Persson, we recorded her playing various sounds and techniques on her bari sax. 

I could describe her playing in these videos as variously smooth, fat, and nasty, hence the title. It was important to me to write a piece that was rhythmically and sonically vital: alternately cocky, ephemereal, funky and earthy.

"smooth fat nasty" was commissioned by Linn Persson for the 2017 Sound of Stockholm Festival.

But If Not - Dubbelkör

joelengstrom