sonica sequence
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Can we get to know each other through music, even if we don’t speak the same language? The Swedish musician Lisa Nordström travels with her electronic instruments to Cuba, Japan, Cyprus and Indonesia to let improvised music form the basis of her encounter with strangers. From abandoned and overgrown ballrooms, to subways and back alleys and unexpected musical encounters that take place between people from different continents. Sonica Sequence proves that it is possible to communicate through music on an open-minded and deeply musical improvisation film that takes you on a global musical journey. The project Sonica Sequence came to life in Cuba in 2012. In an abandoned lot turned makeshift soccer pitch in old Havanna Lisa Nordström met up with the percussionist Hanser Santos Gómez. Two musicians who had never played together before, never rehearsed together and not even talked about what they were going to play. With the city’s soundscape as a backdrop they explored each other’s musical expression and the end product turned into the rst step on a four year long journey for Lisa Nordström. Sonica Sequence has taken her from Cuba to Japan, Cyprus and Indonesia in search of musical meetings in everyday environments. In a karaoke bar, a busy subway car, a back alley or in the middle of a rice field all perfect settings for improvised musical gatherings with humans from different cultures communicating only in the universal language of musical expression. The project became a critically acclaimed documentary that also was reborn as the album Volume – eight carefully chosen tracks from Soncia Sequence, made available in full length for the first time. Volume is an exciting fusion of electronica, acoustic music and organic experimentation. The album collects musical meetings form different corners of the world into a naked and curious whole. Lisa Nordström is a musician, composer and producer currently based in Gothenburg. She used to be one part of the internationally acclaimed electronica duo Midaircondo. The musicians appearing on Volume come from a broad variety of different genres and Lisa’s own sound blends with everything from chamber music to noise, choral, gamelan, electronica and traditional Japanese music on the eclectic album. Featured on Volume are among others the percussionist Mika Takehara, one of the world’s leading koto players Miki Maruta, Woro, a pioneer within the exploding Indonesian Noise scene, the traditional Balinese orchestra Gamelan Salukat and also The Amalgamation Choir, an all female choir with members from both sides of the divided city of Nicosia. Volume was produced by Lisa Nordström herself and mixed together with Åke Linton at Svenska Grammofonstudion in Gothenburg. The album was released in both Sweden and worldwide by Pether Lindgren’s label ajabu! in November 2017 and was nominated for a Swedish Manifest Award. |
