Simon Løffler’s latest work, Winged Cello Music is premiered by Tanja Orning as part of the concert Cello Musique Concrete.
For two years, Tanja Orning and Simon Løffler have explored different ways of bringing the cello to life: by giving it lungs, turning it into a habitat for white moths, and making it vibrate like a cicada. The moths land on bows and fingers, demanding playing techniques that did not exist before they arrived.
In Winged Cello Music, Simon Løffler builds on a practice developed in the cycle Becoming Animal, premiered at Ultima in 2022, in which non-human co-performers help shape how the music comes into being
Simon Løffler developed Becoming Animal over a three year period as part of Løffler's artistic research at the Norwegian Academy of Music. He explores ways 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 creation of music, breaking down the borders between instrument and the body, spontaneity and composition, ritual and concert.
Find more information about the performance of Winged Cello Music here.