A piece written for and performed by the string ensemble Musica Vitae in April 2021. Special thanks to conductor Michael Bartosch, Mårten Sundén for mixing the track and playing violin, and my teacher Malin Bång for the guidance.

https://www.musicavitae.com

The Soft Machine (2021)

The piece is about a sudden release of frenetic energy in dogs.
Dog sounds: Akamaru
Sound design/recording: Merve Erez

Zoomies

Typography

Written for and recorded by Low Frequency Trio for their project Nuevas Músicas Latinoamericanas, with the support of Ibermúsicas.

Antonio Rosales, bass clarinet
Juan José García, double bass
José Luis Hurtado, piano
With fixed-media electronics diffused through three mini-speakers attached to the instruments.

About the piece: https://micheleabondano.com/2022/12/14/no-construction-is-whole/

No Construction Is Whole (2022) | Michele Abondano

For amplified piano and objects

A text was also generated by ChatGPT as a side story!

"Once, there was a cow named Vow, and it got into a really weird situation. See, Vow got pulled through a messed-up space tunnel and wound up on this super odd planet where the rules of reality were all over the place.

Vow, usually a pretty chill cow, was totally freaked out by the bizarre stuff going on in this alien world. Everything there was crazy – weird sounds, strange sights, and nothing making any sense at all.

It all started when Vow got sucked into a space twist. Suddenly, it was surrounded by a wild mix of noises, like banging, chirping, and honking. There were creatures that looked like walking broccoli dancing in ways that just confused the heck out of Vow.

And the sky? Oh boy, that thing changed colors like a disco ball on overdrive. It was like the rules of nature took a vacation, and nothing made sense anymore. Vow was so fed up that it let out a super weird "Moo!" that echoed across this nutty world.

As Vow wandered around, it met creatures that were a crazy mix of elephants and flamingos. They balanced on one leg while juggling watermelons. There were other creatures too, like floating jellyfish that recited poetry in a language Vow couldn't even understand.

Vow got angrier by the second. Why did the universe have to mess with a simple cow like this? Vow was determined to find a way back home. So, it went on a mission to find a stable space tunnel in all this noise and chaos.

After a bunch of wild adventures, like having tea with talking teapots and arguing with walking trees, Vow found a crack in space and jumped through it.

And just like that, Vow was back on Earth, munching on grass in its usual meadow. The whole wacky journey was over, and Vow couldn't help but let out a triumphant "Moo!" as it enjoyed the calm and normalcy of home."

The piece is recorded during my residency at Visby International Centre for Composers

Angry Cow

for solo marimba
performer: Simon Halvarsson

A fine line ll

This piece reconstructs itself through memory rather than following the original flow of Puccini's work.

Note: I don't recommend to adjust the volume as I left the dynamic range pretty wide.


Dissecting the Old Classics / Micro-fragments: La Bohème

Mosaik

Obra ganadora del segundo puesto en musica contemporanea, menor de 30 años, otorgado por el Consejo de la musica Argentina (2018). Compuesta por Jonathan Corzo. Acousmatic. También en 2020 fue reconicida como una obra recomendada en el prestigioso festival Forum Wallis de Suiza
The cavern does not have other way out more than zenith and his entrance is underground, that is to say, from the center of the world. With this first indication,  the electroacustic piece “Inside the cavern, at the end a small light” was created under the deep self-discovery and the necessary hopelessness to make a composition that means beyond of a simple sonorous fact. 

The piece is a representation about the empty contents into itself, it is a circular search  between the hopelessness and the hope.  “Inside the cavern, at the end a small light” is a piece that is constantly searching towards the ascension, that is searching the entirety light. It was created, nearly all, with colombian rattle and acusmatic tranformations.

Inside The Cavern, At The End A Small Light

Note: Please also check out the youtube video as the staging/theatricality is vital to fully experiencing the work.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMd7iVxDjWo
- - - 
for string quartet + materials (2018)
premiered July 22nd 2018 at the Banff Center for the Arts and Creativity for the EQ Evolution String Quartet Summer Program.

Four Sharp Corners (2018)for string quartet and materials

Composition/arrangement: Jakob Thonander Glans

Band:

Alto saxophone: Thomas Jäderlund
Voice I: Sara Aldén
Voice II: Maja Kirchhoff
Guitar: Jonatan Stirner
Piano I:  August Björn
Piano II: Hampus Torarp
Bass I: Simon Rangstedt
Bass II:  Boel Mogensen
Drums: Per Eriksson

Program notes:

Since the age of 14 I have had an on-going love/hate relationship with jazz music. Around that age I started studying jazz-guitar and kept studying it until the age of 19. During many of those years I had a dream of becoming a professional jazz-guitarist, a dream I never achieved. Partly because I didn't practice well enough, but mainly because I never truly understood the genre. To me jazz is a genre full of contrasting elements. It is completely free, but also painfully strict. It is part rebellion, part absolute conformity. It is the coolest musical genre in the world, but also somehow the lamest. The idea behind the piece JÆZZ was to finally be able to tackle the genre completely on my own terms. JÆZZ is part celebration, part parody and part something in between the two of a genre of music I love but never managed to understand. 

Quotations:  

JÆZZ features a large number of quotations - respectfully stolen from a large number of honorable people.

The musical quotations are:
 
Blue in green - Miles Davis (1959)
My romance - Richard Rodgers (1935)
Blue skies - Irvin Berlin (1926)
All blues - Miles Davis (1959)
GIant steps - John Coltrane (1960)
Donna Lee - Charlie Parker (1947)
Beautiful love - Viktor Young (1931)
Fly me to the moon - Bart Howard (1954)
Minor swing - Django Reinhardt (1937)
Mr PC - John Coltrane (1959)
The red one - Pat Metheny (1994)
Blue train - John Coltrane (1957)
Darn that dream - Van Heuten (1939)
Take 5 - Paul Desmond (1959)
Footprints - Wayne Shorter (1967)
So what - Miles Davis (1959)
Karl Bertil Jonssons Julafton - Gunnar Svensson (1975)
In a sentimental mood - Duke Ellington (1935)
Moon river - Henry Mancini  (1961)
La vie en rose - Edith Piaf (1947)
Life is a fucking party - Jakob Glans (2018)

Text quotations from:

Daniel Handler, Vera Nazarian, Thelonious Monk, Louis Armstrong, Rakim, Jerry Roll Morton, Ginger Baker, Gregory Porter, Gerry Mulligan, Art Blakey, Charles Mingus, Dexter Gordon, Charlie Parker, Ornette Coleman, Herbie Hancock, Duke Ellington, Fats Waller, Wes Montgomery, Esperanza Spalding, Nina Simone, Billie Holiday, Toots Thieleman and Jon Stewart.

Recorded at the Academy of Music and Drama in Gothenburg, Sweden.

Dissecting the Old Classics / Micro-fragments: La Bohème

Merve Erez

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