Residues (2006)
(for orchestra)

My composing is to a large extent concerned with reverberations, remnants and repercussions. In this piece there are remnants of traditional Swedish folk music and of earlier works of my own as well as sounds created by the Canadian instrument-maker and composer Jean-François Laporte. I seldom use material in its original form, however; it would be more accurate to compare my method of working to playing a melody in cathedral acoustics and then taking away the melody itself. The reverberations that remain are what interest me most. In Residues, for example, the orchestra plays notated sounds based on Laporte’s fantastic instruments as well as treatments of Swedish traditional folk music.

At the world premiere of Residues Jean-François Laporte were also participating himself and performing on his instruments with the orchestra. Laporte and I were fellow students at IRCAM in Paris and I came in contact with his instruments there. I realised straightaway that I wanted to use them in my music and in this work I have used the “bol” and the “tu-yo” – both of which have rubber membranes that vibrate when air is blown on to them. With the help of compressed air it is possible to play on several instruments at the same time and also to produce a level of volume that can match a symphony orchestra. Oddly enough the sounds produced by these completely acoustic instruments are almost electronic in character, like synthesizers or computer-processed sounds, and were exactly what I was looking for to expand the orchestral timbre