Ultima: Simon Løffler – Becoming Animal

Non-human music.

Photo: Alexander Back Petersen

If humans were animals, what would music sound like? 

Doors open 30 minutes before event start
Duration: about 45 minutes
Seated

Simon Løffler: Becoming Animal (2022, WP) 
Animalia I 
Animalia II 
Animalia III.a 
Animalia III.b 
Animalia III.c 
Animalia IV.a 
Animalia IV.b

Danish composer Simon Løffler is on a mission to bring composition nearer to the condition of animal behaviour. He adapts the signs of ritual behaviour and display to a human performance method, in the process opening up the parameters for how the body can be utilised in the generation of music.  
 
Performed by Oslo’s Pinquins percussion trio and contemporary pianist Ellen Ugelvik, Becoming Animal explores how musicians’ physicality and interactions can be extended into the realm of the non-human. The performers have extended body parts that mimic the bodies of certain animal species. This forces their body language to change, as well as their relationship with time. They start to mark their territory with gestures and signals, sound and silence, movement and sound-colours.   

Performers: 
Pinquins Percussion Trio 
Ellen Ugelvik 
Simon Løffler 

In collaboration between MUNCH and Norges musikkhøgskole. 

This concert is part of the Ultima Festival (15 – 24 September), where all the diversity of contemporary music can be experienced at venues all over Oslo. The festival is supported by the Arts Council Norway and Oslo City Council. More about Ultima at MUNCH.