"Oscillum" for cello solo and tape, commission of the Huddersfield contemporary music festival, UK in 2009.
Performed by cellist Anton Lukoszevieze (UK)

photo by visual artist Candas Sisman from our project EFF-LUX

Oscillum

I’ve been to Hong Kong three times in my life, all of them before the 1997 handover. (Once in the 70s, once in the 80s, and once in the mid 90s.) Were I to return, I don’t think I would recognize the HK of the present. The version that Xi Jinping’s government is putting in place is operationally very different from the society that I experienced. And I’m sorry to say that believing that the One Country Two Systems framework would last very long past ‘97 always struck me as unlikely: China was a world power for millennia save for a blip in history when 19th century colonial Britain and their naval warships used Chinese inventions like gunpowder against the Qing Dynasty in order to maintain a trading relationship where Britain could continue to use opium instead of silver in exchange for Chinese porcelain, silk, and tea. Because Britain itself didn't have enough silver to buy what it wanted, but it did have Indian-sourced opium. So there was never going to be a permanent obeisance for the colonial way of doing things. The future of the island and the Kowloon side is on track to be typified by increasingly tight control and less European-style democracy. Any historian could tell you that. The Hong Kong that I experienced is a thing of the past. 

Nonetheless I chose the title with its reference to Hong Kong as the locus of the Tyme Sefari Field Recordings that constitute the initial material. Postmodernism’s leveraging ‘recognition’ as a mechanism to trigger awareness of metatextuality is not operative here, and arguably the provenance of the materials is irrelevant as there are no audible traces left of the original sounds. The work, then, could simply be ‘untitled’ and regarded as an abstraction rather than an entity with discernible content that an assiduous listener might unpack. There are other levels that resist easy apprehension, in particular a formal scheme that is likely to deny access to the logic of its deployment and raison d’etre, though one of its tactics is that it makes legible the fact that there are patternings present throughout. 

This is the first work in a series wherein each has a duration of 74 minutes, the original 1982 CD standard.

fragrantredharbortorrent (2021)

Wraith II was written for Ensemble Black Pencil

Paetzold contrabass recorder - Jorge Isaac
contrabass pan-flute - Matthijs Koene 
viola - Esra Pehlivanli
accordion - Marko Kassl
percussion - Enric Monfort
and amplification

Recorded at the Orgelpark Amsterdam during the Prix Annelie de Man Festival 2023 where Wraith II was awarded the Ensemble Black Pencil Prize.

Wraith II

Memento Mori
recorded in Music Sacrum Arnhem on 24-02-2024

RKST21 (Orkest de Ereprijs and friends):

Conductor: Gregory Charette
Sound Direction: Pieter Jongelie

Bass Flute: Marije van den Berg
Alto Flute: Jacqueline van den Brink
Alto Sax: Erik-Jan de With
Baritone Sax: Sabine Laar
Tuba: Dineke Griek
Horn: Jeroen van Dijk & Lucas Jansen
Trumpet: Sjoerd Pauw & Chloe Abbot
Trombone: Beppie Schalken & Peter de Hoop
Clarinet: Bram Boesschen Hospers & Kees van der Harst
Electric Guitar: Sjors van der Mark
Bass Guitar: Herman Lamers
Piano: Aljosja Buijs
Sampler: Jorrick Simmes
Accordion: Wilco Oomkes
Percussion: André Groen & Peter Wolterinck
Violin I: Heleen Hulst (concert master) & Emma Breedveld
Violin II: Hadewijch Hofland & Maartje Kraan
Viola: Anna Jurriaanse & Ruth Bosboom
Cello: Ivan Nogueira & Bence Huszar
Double Bass: James Oesi

Memento Mori (RKST21)

Percussionists: Brant Roberts and Stephen Downing
Recording of the first performance, at Nief-Norf Summer Festival 2016

Figures and Grids - for two modified hi-hats

Les Objets Impossibles I-V
for large ensemble
2010/2013

Objet 1 - 00:00
Objet 2 - 13:25
Objet 3 - 27:05
Objet 4 - 40:32
Objet 5 - 54:00

performed by MCME + eNsemble + NoName ensemble
conducted by Fyodor Lednev
recorded live from NCCA Arsenal (Nizhni Novgorod), 2013

Les Objets Impossibles 1 - 5

CRUSH commissioned by Sveriges Radio. Premiered 17.01.2018. 14:35 Min.
GATTET http://www.fireworkeditionrecords.com/

CRUSH (excerpt)

Noël des enfants (2013)
by Claude Debussy for soprano and piano
Arrangement by Frederik Neyrinck for soprano, flute, clarinet, violin and cello

also on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uH_0V9FHYEI

Noël des enfants (Claude Debussy, arranged for S, fl, cl, vln, vlc)

https://soundcloud.com/ruudroelofsen's Darkness Dissected, with a new interpretation 4 years after it was written for us. More live, more dirty. 

Reference the score follower video for the score and live studio recording here:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cmnBTojsT0&t=8s

Stefanie Mirwald - Accordion and Voice
Alejandro Oliván López - Prepared Bari Sax and Voice
https://soundcloud.com/christian-s-smith - Percussion & Voice
*special appearance from https://soundcloud.com/victor-barcel on the dropped beer bottle*

Live in Wurm/Flatterschaft as part of Radial Basel, February 22nd, 2020

Ruud Roelofsen - Darkness Dissected (Radial Basel 22.02.20)

IlolliPop. Alex Paxton - Trombone and Composition.
Ensemble Modern. Conducted my Enno Poppe. (25mins)
CRASHKURS HUMAN__MACHINE

Wraith II

RuudRoelofsen

Recent comments

Eliott Delafosse - Composer

Anthony Tan

Related tracks