Sunday, August 26, 2012

Improvisation from a city park overlooking Grunerløkka

Here is an improvisation from a city park. Ordinarily this might not qualify for PINE material, but in the city sometimes we have to make do with what is available as far as natural environments go.


Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Bygdø Royal Manor - Oslo, Norway

Bygdø Royal Manor is a park and functioning farm in Oslo, Norway. It occupies approximately 495 acres, of which 183 are used as farm land. During the 19th century this land was developed into a public park at the request of King Carl Johan who was inspired by European ideals of the time to make a place for the citizens of Oslo to use for leisure activities similar to the ones available in Stockholm and other major capitals.

Much of the area is under the protection of the state as a nature preserve including large areas of unique calcareous pine and broad-leaved deciduous forests.

This is a performance of a new piece i've written called 'An Incident at Akershus.' The title comes from the place where the main themes were written.

The piece contains two main themes and three areas of improvisation. The two themes are unrelated at first but through the use of both compositional methods and improvisation they becomed intertwined and mixed, creating new themes of familiar material. In light of this, the improvisational sections should not be thought of as episodic so much as developmental in nature.


This performance took place at the edge of a field which has been farmed on and off for many years. It is currently not being used for agricultural activities.