Spectralism emerged in France among Olivier Messiaen’s students, including first of all Gérard Grisey. However in Romania it developed independently in parallel, assuming a special form. Briefly speaking, French spectralism is mathematical, whilst Romanian spectral music is more intuitive, one can even say romantic. As fascinating as the theories on that theme may be, music itself is the most convincing evidence. The fans of contemporary electronic music should be satisfied, because spectralists focus on the timbre. They have added the fourth dimension to music, next to its pitch, volume and duration – the depth. There is no talking about Romanian music without mentioning spectralism and no spectralism without Romania. Among the composers we should also mention Iancu Dumitrescu, who will come to the festival with Hyperion Ensemble, whose line-up includes the phenomenal music theoretician and percussionist Chris Cutler and the saxophonist Tim Hodgkinson, both of them former members of the legendary Henry Cow. Currently Hyperion is the main promoter of the works by those composers, often cooperating with Ilan Volkov and avant-garde musicians. In Krakow we will hear a set of completely new compositions written with the planned concert in mind, hosting special guests: Stephen O’Malley (Sunn O))), KTL), with whom the ensemble has performer more than once, and Oren Ambarchi (Nazoranai), for the first time.

PROGRAMME:

Iancu Dumitrescu – SACRUM et PROFANUM (2017)* for two electric guitars and ensemble [world premiere]
Ana-Maria Avram – Nouvel Archae (II) (1998-2001) for voice and electronics
Iancu Dumitrescu – Sphaeroids (2017) for ensemble and electronics [world premiere]
Ana-Maria Avram – Axis (III) (1997-2010) for contrabass solo

***

Ana-Maria Avram – Preambulations (II) (2017) for two electric guitars and percussion instruments [world premiere]
Iancu Dumitrescu – Le Silence d'Or (2006) for ensemble and electronics [Polish premiere]
Ana-Maria Avram – Ellampsis (IV) (2017) for ensemble and electronics [world premiere]
Iancu Dumitrescu – Small Precipice (I) (2017) for ensemble and electronics [world premiere]
Iancu Dumitrescu – Hidden Nebulae (I) (2017) for ensemble and electronics [world premiere]

Hyperion International
Ilan Volkov – conductor
Iancu Dumitrescu – conductor
Diana Miron – voice
Stephen O’Malley, Oren Ambarchi – electric guitar
Zach Rowden – contrabass

*the piece created for the Sacrum Profanum Festival