With its attention turned towards experimental and innovative works of performing arts, Atalante offers a space for the artistic works, a discourse surrounding those works, and the field at large. During the fall of 2024 we will delve deeper into the various universes of the artists presenting work and make space for a dialogue between the artists, the spectators and the venue.
Presented below is a reflective text by Josephine Gray based on a discussion with one of the founders of GEIGER, Tony Blomdahl, in connection with GEIGER’s event OPERAFEST at Atalante in November 2024.
Music as such is an immaterial medium that manages to conjure imaginary spaces within the listener. It is also a devious medium which we succumb to as it possesses the ability to slither its way into our bodies without our consent. This inherent quality of music has given us many accounts of the nature of music. Among them is the well known idea put forward by Kant that music is one of the lesser forms of art due to its elusive nature and the propensity of music to cultivate an almost obsessive behaviour in man which clouds the realm of reason. On the other hand, Nietzsche put forward the opposite view as a defence of music as the source of the great Ancient Tragedies which heralded the coming of the Western world in terms of culture and philosophy. What remains evident is the notion that music as a form of art makes itself known in spite of our willingness to receive it. As such it has a unique capacity of physically taking hold of us in a way other forms of art, such as the fine arts and literature, is unable to do.
GOTHENBURG ELECTROACOUSTIC INSTITUTE FOR GRANTS, EVENTS AND RESEARCH, more widely known by the acronym GEIGER, has since the mid-noughties devoted itself to nurturing the experimental music scene through the GEIGER-festival and the record label Geiger Grammofon. Conversing with Tony Blomdahl, one of its founding members, the notion that music is a physical experience quickly transpires when he describes that “my skin itches and I feel quite physically ill whenever I hear a beat, someone singing and being happy.” Within the vast and multifaceted experimental music scene there resides an urge towards deconstructing the given notion of music in order to push the limits of what music can entail. Tony says that he feels a sense of “calm and warmth when I listen to an askant orchestral piece by Iannis Xenakis, I have always sought more and more extreme things to listen to, until it has reached a point when it isn’t music anymore, almost.” And it is precisely within that which is “almost” not music anymore that we must tap into when discussing experimental music. Xenakis, one the of pioneering figures of the 20th century contemporary avant-garde music scene, approached music as mathematical and spatial. In doing so he established a radically different treatment of music which makes visible the correspondence between the material and the immaterial. These correspondences in turn enabled a way of creating music that relied on a multiplicity of factors that incorporated, but also went beyond, the sounds, tonalities and scales predominantly used in classical music. The inherent musical qualities found within the material realm of objects and their potential musical scores are one, among many, differing factors which separates the experimental from the classical.
From this, questions arise: what differentiates music from mere sound when so-called “music” has been deconstructed to its bare essentials such as vibrations and tonalities? And, how do we interpret something that “almost” isn’t music anymore? The definition of music, according to Tony, is “when it starts somewhere and ends somewhere” while “sound(art) is a happening, such as a sound installation, something more static which exists in one place on a continuum”. What differentiates these two expressions [sound and music] is rather curiously the spatial realm. That is to say that sound art more frequently makes use of physical objects–artefacts–which repeat sounds on a loop within a confined space (such as a museum, or art gallery). In this situation I as a listener/spectator must physically approach the object placed in space while the sound emanating from the object is conceptually indistinguishable from the object itself. The sound-object exists and keeps sounding independent of my presence. Music, such as it is presented at GEIGER-festivals, adheres to the format of the concert: music is performed by live musicians with a clear temporal limit. This format is applicable regardless of what the musicians are playing (digital instruments/objects/technology) as their physical live performance generates the music in realtime. The fact that each event has an indicated beginning and end also means that it is only possible for the listeners (audience) to be in the presence of the music during that specified time.
Since its inception GEIGER has presented a host of events–from one-off concerts to a 30-day festival–with artists from across the globe. All musical expressions present within the sub-genres of experimental music are given space here, as Tony explains, “I don’t like everything within experimental music, I find dreamy beautiful chords difficult to deal with, so that in part influences what we programme. But not everyone in the association agrees with me on this of course, that is also why [our programmes] are different from one another”. GEIGER OperaFest hosted by Atalante this autumn is one example of how those involved within the association are given the opportunity to contribute with their particular expertises and interests. The curator of this weekend’s festival, Åsa Nordgren, is an opera singer and active within GEIGER. The program she has put together offers audiences an event in the spirit of opera and includes concerts as well as meditation opera. This is the first time GEIGER presents a festival devoted solely to experimental opera.
By establishing a ground upon which the experimental music scene in Gothenburg and Sweden can be supported by, GEIGER has nourished the exchange between local, national and international music acts. It is by no means a given that an association such as this can exist and continue to grow as the experimental music scene is still relatively small in Sweden. When discussing the current status of the scene in Europe today we both agree that Sweden is, in many respects, a developing country within the experimental music scene. This is unfortunately also true of other experimental expressions of art. Especially if we look to our Nordic neighbours, and not least continental Europe. Despite the fact that GIEGER has been active since the mid-noughties not much seems to have changed since they began in terms of the amount of artists and acts locally active. “It would be interesting to know if what we’ve done has made any difference in terms of that,” says Tony, “we’re just keeping at it. Doing. We do the same thing now as we did before. That there is some kind of constant, something that continues to exist. I have wanted to be involved and contribute to making something more extreme than everything else. That there is some kind of alternative to the tyranny of the majority.” And it is perhaps precisely by resisting the perceived tyranny of the majority that experimental music, in all its forms, finds its physical expression. By creating space for sonorous experiences and encounters that expands the inner imaginary spaces within us and evoke equal amounts of pleasure and discomfort.
Reflektion & text: Josephine Gray