Martin Tidemann Kvalø is a Norwegian composer working with instrumentations mixing electronic and acoustical instruments and sounds. Using DIY algorithmic tools and improvisation in his compositional processes, Kvalø explores variousmusical spectra such as the in-betweens of harmony/noise, chaos/order, human/robot playing styles and tradition/modernity.

Dada-rekviem

Countertenor, synth, piano

Dada-rekviem is a half-hour piece for countertenor, piano and synthesizer. It is structured around six of the requiem-mass’ traditional sections: Introitus, Kyrie, Sequencia, Sanctus, Pie Jesu and In Paradisum.

Some years ago I was introduced to James Joyce’ Finnegans Wake and was immediately struck by its “incomprehensible meaningfullness”. Before having read much of it I envisioned a man in a tower going through a seizure-like stream of prophetic and chaotic visions in the night. There was something numinous/mystical about this image which made me want to capture it in a music piece. At some point this image was coupled with the idea of a requiem.

The text in the piece is a flow of letters gradually morphing between text from Finnegans Wake, the Latin requiem-verses and random letter-choice. The musical material comes from a similar hybrid-process of improvisation, contrapunctal techniques and chaotic algorithms controlling the synthesizer.