Stavanger, Norway's Kitchen Orchestra commissioned the piece Mirrorworld from Australian composer Anthony Pateras which was premiered 8th of September 2013 at the Stavanger Concert Hall under Nymusikk Stavanger.
 
Mirrorworld is a 50 minute piece, energetic and rhythmically charged with full on electronics flying everywhere in surround.  A stochastic afro-beat whiplash of electro-acoustics. Pateras conducts from the piano centre stage facing the ensemble with drummers at opposing sides with the ensemble in a semi circle in between.The improvisational aspect is based around Lutowslawski’s technique in which modules of material are used and overlaid, cued in and out of.

This is a sample of that premiere.

Anthony Pateras
A pianist and composer from Melbourne, Australia his work is unified by the simultaneous investigation of the formalized, intuitive, electronic and acoustic. His works have been performed by the LA Philharmonic Association, Brett Dean, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Erkki Veltheim, Timothy Munro, Speak Percussion, Percussion Group The Hague, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Ensemble Phoenix Basel, Ensemble Integrales Hamburg, Australian Art Orchestra and Vanessa Tomlinson.

He has an uncommon practice in that outside of writing numerous works for the concert hall, he has worked with leading figures in rock, electronic and jazz genres such as Mike Patton, Stephen O’Malley, Christian Fennesz, Han Bennink, Paul Lovens, eRikm and The Necks.

Kitchen Orchestra
Formed in 2005, Kitchen Orchestra is a music collective built around 24 members of locally based improvisers exploring the improvisational relationship between the individual and the ensemble in the context of modern and jazz music. It was formed at the initiative of co-founders Petter Frost Fadnes, Didrik Ingvaldsen, Gunhild Seim  and Nils Henrik Asheim, as a creative response to bringing the very best of Stavanger’s musical community together in a collective, ongoing project

They have worked closely under the direction of Anthony Pateras, Øyvind Torvund, Evan Parker, Keith Tippet, Trevor Wishart, Reidar Larsen, Svein Tang Wa, Steve Beresford, Dave Kane, Per Zanussi and Lotte Anker. They have also collaborated with internationally known dance troupe Inbal Pinto, as well as with Japanese multimedia artists Tetsuya Nagato and Hiraku Suzuki.

Musicians:
Anthony Pateras – Piano
Baritone Sax – Petter Frost Fadnes
Double Bass – John Lilja
Cello – Olav K. S. Olsen
Violin – Gro Hole Austgulen
Accordion – Johan Egdetveit
Trumpet – Gunhild Seim
Electronics – Dag Egil Njaa
Drums/ Percussion – Dag Magnus Narvesen,
and Ståle Birkeland


Mirrorworld - Kitchen Orchestra with Anthony Pateras

Premiered as a sold-out event under Stavanger International Chamber Music festival August 2011, Kitchen Baroque was a commissioned work under the compositional direction of Nils Henrik Asheim.

A meeting between Baroque grooves and contemporary improvisation Stavanger Baroque and Kitchen Orchestra join forces to reveal new potential in three hundred year old music.

Six skilled Baroque specialists of varied international background are seated on the left side of stage – on the right side, six improvising musicians from Stavanger, with rock, jazz and classical background, from the adventurous musical collective Kitchen Orchestra. In the middle, a percussion player bridges the two styles.

The instrumentation is set up to correspond by pairs – for example, the innovative and very personal vocal style of Stine Janvin Motland is the strange mirror image of the beautiful soprano of Elin Aase.

It is important for composer Nils Henrik Asheim, who also conducts the project, to be honest towards the musical traditions. So the starting point is to let the Baroque musicians do what they do best, and letting the contemporary musicians play a counterpart to their music instead of messing with it.

Excitingly, things happen as the two cultures clash. Raw, burlesque scenes, open fights, queer reminiscences of tango, dixieland or marches may occur without warning. It reveals a melancholic beauty with an edge, where classical harmony is extended with intriguing modern soundscapes – as if Baroque paintings were rendered with the means of modern video techniques.


Kitchen Baroque - Sample 1

Kitchen Baroque - Sample 2

Kitchen Baroque - Sample 3

Kitchen Baroque - Sample 4

Kitchen Baroque - Sample 5

Kitchen Baroque - Sample 6

What's Cooking is an annual festival at the end of October featuring the arrangers and composers in Kitchen Orchestra from solo, to large ensemble settings. This is often combined with an outside band leader. In this case Kitchen worked with Evan Parker highlighted here in the accompanying sound clip.

Tutti with Evan Parker

For many years Stavanger, Norway has produced some of Norway’s most profiled improvisational musicians. 24 of these professional players, ranging from local jazz musicians to the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, have come together under the name Kitchen Orchestra as a musical collective exploring the improvisational relationship between the individual and the ensemble in the context of modern and jazz music. Projects vary in size depending on the composer/ band-leader’s desires from solo pieces to full orchestra.

Past collaborators include Alexander von Schlippenbach, Øyvind Torvund, Inbal Pinto, Evan Parker, Keith Tippet, Trevor Wishart, Reidar Larsen, Svein Tang Wa, Steve Beresford, Dave Kane, Per Zanussi and Lotte Anker. Their wide range of musical ventures and collaborations which can be explored on their website www.kitchenorchestra.com. 2013 offers the release of their collaboration with Alexander von Schlippenbach, a commissioned work with Australian composer Anthony Pateras, a continuation of Kitchen Barokk, and the annual festival What’s Cooking.

Kitchen Orchestra is diverse, flexible and always on the look out for interesting collaborations. If you are interested in collaborating with Kitchen Orchestra and/or interested in hosting a workshop, or booking one of the following projects

For booking/ workshops/ collaborations please contact producer Ashley Stubbert
email: kitchenorchestra@gmail.com


Kitchen Orchestra

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