Ecstatic Music Fest: Mariam Wallentin & Mikael Karlsson with ACME

Thursday, March 01 | 7:30pm

Overview
Program
Photos
Video
Audio

Mariam Wallentin (pictured), hailed for her “beyond gorgeous” voice (Prefix) in the band Wildbirds & Peacedrums (praised by Pitchfork as “highly complex and agile pop music”), teams up with acclaimed composer Mikael Karlsson to create a new song cycle, The Spirit & the Cloud, performed with the American Contemporary Music Ensemble (“some of New York’s brightest, busiest players,” Time Out New York). The evening will also include a selection of Karlsson’s instrumental compositions and arrangements of Wildbirds & Peacedrums songs for Wallentin and ACME.

Mikael Karlsson - Breathing
Text: Mikael Karlsson
for viola, cello, narrator

Mikael Karlsson - End of Part One
for percussion, viola, cello

Mariam Wallentin/Andreas Werliin - Bleed Like There Was No Other Flood
Re-arranged: Mikael Karlsson
Text: Mariam Wallentin
for vocals, flute, clarinet, percussion, viola, cello

Mikael Karlsson - Nasty Fucker
for flutes and electronics
1. loop
2. antiphonal
3. lower

Mariam Wallentin/Andreas Werliin - Doubt/Hope
Re-arranged: Mikael Karlsson
Text: Mariam Wallentin
for vocals, flute, clarinet, percussion, viola, cello

Intermission

Mariam Wallentin/Mikael Karlsson - The Spirit & The Cloud
for flutes, clarinets, percussion, piano, viola, cello

About The Spirit & The Cloud
The program includes the world premiere of the song cycle The Spirit & The Cloud. A year in the making, this song cycle is a half-abstract story divided between five songs co-composed by the cycle's singer, Mariam Wallentin (of Wildbirds & Peacedrums) and composer/pianist Mikael Karlsson.

We begin our story during the final moments in the life of a man, alone and slumped in the last room he will ever experience. Dust, sounds and scents trail to the ceiling and from there, something leaves the body to travel upward and through the city streets, through steam and fumes. A calm sorrow turns into an adventure, and we get to listen in.

What does a brand new vantage point give? What is there to talk about when words no longer matter? What about those left behind? What do clouds know about us? What is in an end and what is in a new beginning? Can you make a percussion set out of a tree trunk?

The cycle will be released as an album later this year, and will travel back to the composers’ homeland Sweden for further performances.

Visit the Tumblr page for The Spirit & the Cloud.