Snæbjörnsdóttir O’Rourke Miller Torvund

Bergrún Snæbjörnsdóttir (b. 1987) is an Icelandic composer studying under Fred Frith and John Bischoff at Mills College in Oakland, California. She has worked with the likes of Björk and Sigur Rós and is a member of the S.L.Á.T.U.R. collective (Association of Artistically Obtrusive Composers around Reykjavik). In Esoteric Mass a group of woodwind players interpret a score that consists of a series of moving dots and circles projected on the floor of a blacked-out space, like atoms swirling around a particle accelerator.

Jim O’Rourke (b. 1969) is a rare breed of omni-musician, whose output stretching back to the late 80s includes electroacoustic experiments, free improvisation, songwriting, film soundtracks, explorations of American folk guitar and noise assaults. He was associated with the music scene in Chicago during the 1990s, where he worked as a musician (Gastr Del Sol, Brise-Glace, solo) and record producer before joining the US avant rock band Sonic Youth. In 2000 he relocated to Tokyo where he currently lives and works.

Come Back Soon is his brand new piece written for orchestra. O’Rourke explains how an image of "water damaged music’"came to mind when he started writing the piece. “Notes faded, whole sections smudged, a ghostly white mask over everything. I hoped to hear something half forgotten, grasping to fill in the holes of memory that time and weather had eroded away.”

A Large House creates an immersive vortex of rocking wave-like motions through an entire orchestral string section. “This piece made me feel like an architect,” says Canadian composer Cassandra Miller (b. 1976).

“I was writing something that was a large space, open, but perhaps with huge pillars holding it up. The piece is stationary, it doesn’t move, it’s grounded in one place, and maybe it even resonates like something with a lofty ceiling. As for any other connection between this piece and a large house, you are welcome to make it as you like.” Miller’s music focuses microscopically on grain and texture while remaining whimsical and surreal. She has worked with Quatuor Bozzini, pianist Philip Thomas and EXAUDI.

Norwegian composer Øyvind Torvund (b. 1976) deals in transitions between one medium and another, using such inputs as film, found cassette recordings, animal sounds and projected photos or paintings to stimulate an interpreter’s abilities.

His new orchestral work Sweet Pieces, written especially for Only Connect, is a disconcerting and strangely beautiful dialogue between the lush harmonic soundworlds of Debussy, Messiaen and Burt Bacharach-style orchestration, harsh percussive noise, and 70s-era synthesizer music. The piece explores friction and unfamiliarity as these very different continental plates rub up against each other. His music has been performed at Donaueschingen Musiktage, Maertz Musik, Issue Project Room, Huddersfield and many other festivals.

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