Songs for Simone
ISMN : 979-0-2325-6495-1
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In Lotta Lotass the Black Sun (2010), the reader is greeted by a dense, poetic text that meticulously describes an unknown, slightly post-apocalyptic, space in 340 paragraphs. Each paragraph delineates a specific space or passage in between. These passages constantly lead on, as the reader whimsically chooses left, right, straight ahead, and is thus led towards new section numbers, new rooms and new passages. Some readings lead you out of the building, others lead you back to the starting point.
I have spent much of the last few years suggesting and fantasizing about a possible music in this place. Paragraph after paragraph I have tried to portray in different sounding forms with shifting focus. Minor immersions can be found in the choir, organ and percussion concerto Oneiros, and the flute solo rumori. The largest "exploration" so far is in the ensemble works Rumori ii and Songs for Simone, which take two different walks through Lotass book.
In Songs for Simone, Lotass text is also given a tangible voice. Excerpts from Simone Weil's Gravity and Grace are heard, not least in the electronic part. Sonic gravity can be said to be one of the recurring themes in the musical performance. Weil writes that the soul follows the laws of gravity, that grace is the only exception. In Songs for Simone, also sound is a state of exception.
Perhaps I should point out that although Lotass condensed lyrics are central in so many ways, the music never aspires to be illustrative, but of course the words have mattered - as paragraph 329/261 states:
"(261) a faint metallic sound [...] Their pale grey hands hold the accustomed, rigid grips. (329) The sound rings shrilly [...] through the bright, wide hall. The clappers [...] against the grinded, shallow bowls of the bells."
Songs for Simone was written and is dedicated to the ensemble AKSIOM.
Pages - 70
