Extinction sounds was commissioned by the festival TronTalks 2023 in Tynset/Alvdal, Norway, and premiered on October 21st during the festival that year. In November 2024 a recording of the premiere was released on Elvesang records.
The work starts out from my vivid sensory childhood memories of sound from as a conceptual framework. A very personal approach for making music indeed, but at the same time Extinction sounds also examines more universal aspects of the nature of sound. Every sound, and our perception of it, vanishes and never comes back exactly as it was experienced in that moment. Such is the nature of sound. But what we hear, be it spoken words or the call of a bird, alter our subjective experience of reality and may trigger all kinds of emotional responses and intellectual processes. In Extinction sounds I try to examine this aspect of sound as a compositional tool in many ways, in a musical context where my own memories serve as a sonic painting palette.
MUSICIANS
Jon Balke - piano
Torben Snekkestad - saxophone and trumpet
Sara Övinge - violin
Bendik Bjørnstad Foss - viola
Tanja Orning - cello
Anders Kregnes Hansen - marimba and percussion
Veslemøy Narvesen - drums and percussion
Sigurd Hole – double bass
The first thing I notice when I wake up is the smell of flowers. Next, I hear the tinkling of sheep bells and a continuum of buzzing insects, varying in pitch and intensity. Some close and some far away, some passing rapidly by. Birds join in now and then, accompanied by sheep chatter. The sunlight streams in through the windows as it softens the morning dew outside and slowly warms the cabin after the chill of night.
Such was the mornings at our family cabin Gammelsætra, some five kilometres into the mountains from the farm where I grew up in Rendalen, Norway. I spent a large part of every summer up there when I was a child, helping my parents look after the sheep. Many years have passed since then, but I can still recall the different sounds and smells as if I had just experienced them. Much of the music for Extinction sounds was composed during several visits to Gammelsætra in the spring and summer of 2023. In the process, I asked myself questions like: is the sounds I hear today the same as the ones I heard 35 years ago? What, if anything, has changed? Can I trust my own memories?
Martin Hufner / Neue Musik Zeitung