Øyvind Torvund
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Øyvind Torvund (b.1976) is a Norwegian composer and conceptual artist.
He studied composition at the Norwegian Academy of Music (Oslo) and Universität der Künste (Berlin); equally important is his background as a guitarist in rock and improvising groups. He has ongoing relationship with groups such as asamisimasa (Norway), Oslo Sinfonietta and Plus Minus (UK), as well as the video artist Yorgos Sapountziz. From 2005 to 2008 he was the Programme Advisor to Nicholas Møllerhaug for the Borealis Festival in Bergen.
Although some of Torvund's works, such as the Nono and Scelsi inspired orchestral piece How Sound Travels (2006), are easily located under the umbrella of contemporary classical music, many of his pieces combine sounds and concepts from other musical traditions. In Power Art (2006), for soprano, guitar and 2-stringed bass, the bass instrument is built by the performer and the piece "is reminiscent of the musical feel of hardcore power trios like Black Flag, even if a song by Henry Purcell is the piece’s foundation."[1] In Album Cycle (2004) for 9 instruments, he "layers typical Baroque figures, the décor of garish 1980s pop, and stereotypical free jazz riffs, resulting in a tableau of musical ornamentation crossing styles and eras, oscillating between the exalted and the banal."[2] In Tune Park (2006), a modular piece that may be performed with different instrumental combinations, each player has a catalogue of musical fragments and together the musicians create rules for how to use them. For instance, creating a chain where the musicians always play in the same order at two-second intervals (e.g. clarinet-violin-piano-accordion-clarinet-violin etc).
Torvund has created many installations, most notably the Bandrom project - "a multi-disciplinary performance event with a polyphony of independent concerts, slide-shows, installations and music situations."[3] A Bandrom event may be realised on "one night or over several days, and in each version there is a new set-up that relates to the place and context."[4] The core musical idea is that musician's teach each other short solo pieces "by ear" and this teaching process is shown to the spectators, usually in an informal setting with food and drink.
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