Rebecca Saunders: Stirrings Still

»Stirrings Still« – the extreme reduction in Samuel Beckett’s last prose text inspired Rebecca Saunders to write her eponymous ensemble piece, in which five players explore sounds at the cusp of extinction. Another quiet, sparse piece is Daniel Verasson’s »holurt«, which shares its modest title with the Icelandic name of sea campion. Starting together, letting the breath stream forth, listening to fading sounds …

A stark contrast is offered by Ricardo Eizirik’s »Junkyard piece IIIB«: here, silence results only from the interruption of mechanical movement. The ensemble resembles a malfunctioning machine, revving up slowly, rotating, stalling and falling into new processes according to inscrutable patterns. 

Finally, Elena Rykova’s trio composition »Life expectancy. Experience #2. Your Moon« combines gentle noises, electronically amplified, of prepared instruments in a strangely beautiful soundscape. 

​Supported by Kunststiftung NRW