Christian Jaksjø’s Encountering the Imaginary [Ulysses] in Copenhagen

Featuring the real-time technology of  Antescofo, along with Pure Data, and Csound, as well as electro-mechanical and electro-magnetic treatments of the grand piano. In the composition of the piece, OpenMusic was utilized extensively.

«It is not always the loudest who are the most interesting let alone the most intelligent to listen to. Among the ghosts of the past we most certainly find the haunting voices of the Sirens that Ulysses was exposed to. It is, of course, an aspiring claim to be driven mad by music. Christian Jaksjø's Encountering the Imaginary [Ulysses] is an attempt to access regions of sound that have been withdrawn from the listener (for the sake of his own safety). Jaksjø preludes the score with a text by Maurice Blanchot, describing the song of the Sirens as unfulfilling yet being "a sign of where the real sources and real happiness of song opened", and the text seems like an antedated description of Jaksjø's piece, in which the instrument is engaged in a self-modulating song through an elaborate electro-acoustic exchange between the played piano part and an electronic soundtrack. There is also a close connection between Jaksjø's Encountering the Imaginary and Lachenmann's Serynade, the material of the former having been derived from the latter, exposing those sounds that Lachenmann only hinted at. But more than being a frottage of Lachenmann's piece Jaksjø has tapered the project of listening deeply and beyond, turning the piano into a guidepost that leads well into the 21st century.»
(Björn Gottstein)

Ellen Ugelvik – Grand Piano

Computer Music Design Christian Jaksjø

The Black Diamond