Niels Lyhne Løkkegaard's Colliding Bubbles (surface tension and release) is a string quartet and a harmonica quartet, meaning that the members of the quartet will play string instruments while playing harmonica.
Niels Lyhne Løkkegaard tells about Colliding Bubbles: "The title refers to the different kind of bubbly matters which are set to collide within the composition, leading to different ruptures and possible release of surface tension. The collision of bubbles will unfold partly in relation to sound, where small fluctuations will appear in the encounters between harmonicas and string instruments and partly in relation to a more performative or conceptual bubble where instruments representing different systems, or bubbles, will collide; the very celebrated instruments within the classical string quartet and the perhaps more prosaic harmonica.”
The piece was commissioned by the Montreal-based quartet Quatuor Bozzini. They will premiere the piece at Klub Katarakt, Festival for Experimental Music in Hamburg on 19 January, and afterwards they will perform it at Alice in Copenhagen, Denmark on 22 January and at Espace Orange in Montreal, Canada on 29 January.