Passing Cloud (2021)
WP by Ensemble Recherche at Kasseler Musiktage 04.11.21

Score

«Passing Cloud» is both the name of a phenomenon where an octopus changes colour and texture of its skin across space and time, and also simply a cloud that passes over us.



I have used the old map Carta marina (Latin for nautical charts) which is the first map of Scandinavia. The map is a navigation map, intended for sailors and drawn by the Swedish priest Olaus Magnus and printed in Venice in 1539. Carta marina is lavishly illustrated with creatures, sea monsters and situations from the countries' folk life and beliefs. Olaus Magnus’ intentions were to create an accurate gallery of marine biology based on the information collected from medieval bestiaries, popular folklore and mariner’s accounts.



In the piece the audience is taken on a journey into the map. They become like a "Passing Cloud" hovering over the landscape, and get to see the beautiful scenery in detail.

For the Toy Lab project a new instrument called «Wind Vessel» has been developed in collaboration with the instrument maker Léo Maurel. The instrument becomes a kind of eight-armed sea monster, and it also turns into a ship´s floor where the musicians are the crew manoeuvring a ship together.