This thin voice rose, and gave out
one sound after another. At times
there seemed rhythm, at times there
was the illusion of a Western melody.
But
the ear, baffled repeatedly, soon
lost any clue, and wandered in a maze
of noises, none harsh or unpleasant,
none
intelligible. It was the song of an
unknown bird. Only the servants
understood it...
E.M. Forster
A
Passage to India
| after AVFest08 performance in Middlesbrough, UK |
|
| Terje Thivång, Jonas Larsson, Mike Edgerton, Stefan Östersjö, Jörgen Pettersson & Angela Rademacher |
Reviews of the Tempo Mental Rap, performed by Stefan Östersjö on the Prize
Winning concert of the Kompositionspreis der Landeshauptstadt Stuttgart in April 2008
Review 1: "Eloquent
gestures full of tension
The guitarist Stefan Östersjö whistled along the strings, whispered fleeting
noise-clusters and coaxed long drawn out tones from his instrument, sometimes similar to improvised, hectic gestures at dangerously
fast speeds.
The "Tempo Mental Rap" was seen to be a ghostly or disembodied piece,
in which conventional musical expressions were thrown out, … Throughout the piece, innovative extensions involving sound
production .. hinted at an otherworldly expression."
Ulrich Köppen, Stuttgarter Nachtrichten 28.04.08
Review 2: "Search for
new styles of expression
The Swedish guitarist Stefan Östersjö performed the Tempo Mental Rap of
the prizewinner Michael Edgerton, a highly virtuosic work. The well-known expressive possibilities and techniques of this
instrument were blown up and thus new sound possibilities were developed. Hans-Peter Jahn, director of new music at SWR, had
personally assisted Mr. Östersjö in performance by turning pages of the oversized musical score. The intrinsic rhythmic speech-song
(of the Frank Zappa rap) remained exciting with both hands gripping, knocking, hitting and stroking until the conclusion."
Hans-Jörg Lund. Reutlinger General-Anzeiger 29.04.08
Reviews of the String Quartet #1, first movement; performed by the Kairos String Quartet
RADIOMAGAZIN 25/2004
"... Edgerton, in his 1 Stringquartet writes a complex music that one can either
simply intuitively understand, or can parse out a deeper understanding from the composers' instructions. ...(Edgerton's work)
is a recent heir to a venerable tradition, in which the last word has not yet been spoken."
Michael Eidenbenz (translated
by M. Edgerton)
NEUE ZEITSCHRIFT FÜR MUSIK 3, MAY/JUNE 2004
"... Edgerton's Quartet #1 ... virtuosic special
effects and calculated dramaturgy."
Werner M. Grimmel (translated by M. Edgerton)
4. SENDE(R)MUSIK
" ... The many-layered nuanced colors of the string sound may possibly
be associated with the diffusion of light through a prism, to awaken the impression of the existence of a larger string ensemble."
Christoph Sramek (translated by M. Edgerton)
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