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Don't miss out on tickets to Saturday 25 April #BristolNewMusic performances at Arnolfini, including Mark Knoop performing Sam Salem’s Waves of crashing blackness

🎟️ Tickets via Headfirst / link in bio
Co-presented with the brilliant @AnotherSkyFest who celebrate experimental music from the SWANA region & diaspora

An intrepid explorer of music of all ages, pianist and conductor @mark_knoop is known for his versatile technique and virtuosity.

@_samsalem is an award-winning composer and artistic director who creates audiovisual works for performers, electronics and video which challenge traditional notions of concert presentation and instrumental virtuosity.

"A powerless act in the face of unstoppable horror… signalling endurance, solidarity,
remembrance of what once was and hope for what could still be” – Positionen on Waves of crashing blackness

Clip from Allegro sostenuto (1987/88) by Helmut Lachenmann, performed by Mark Knoop, Vicky Wright and Alice Purton.

Hear it live at Plus Minus’s double bill concert with Nina Guo @facesound and Joseph Houston
7pm, Tuesday 17 March — Deptford Town Hall

🎟 Tickets in bio

#newmusic #chambermusic #london #experimentalmusic #deptford

Mark Knoop performs Sam Salem’s ‘Waves of crashing blackness’ (2024)
For piano, electronics & fixed audiovisual media.

An intrepid explorer of music of all ages, pianist and conductor @mark_knoop is known for his versatile technique and virtuosity. While focussing on the work of living composers, his interpretations of standard and 20th-century repertoire have drawn praise. In addition to solo performances, he regularly appears with ensembles Plus-Minus and Apartment House, and as a duo partner with soprano Juliet Fraser.

Sam Salem is an award-winning composer and artistic director who creates audiovisual works for performers, electronics and video which challenge traditional notions of concert presentation and instrumental virtuosity. His work is fundamentally psychogeographical, informed by site-specific research – the layers of myth and history that he uncovers form the building blocks of his work. @_samsalem is a founding member of Distractfold Ensemble and co-director of Another Sky.

Mark Knoop performs @arnolfiniarts on 24.04.26. The concert is presented in collaboration with @anotherskyfestival , a festival and artistic platform celebrating experimental music from the SWANA (South West Asia & North Africa) region and diaspora.

Find links to event tickets and Saturday passes in our bio.

Design: @fem.kecampbell
Photo: Marc Tunguz

Tomorrow, EXMO welcomes Plus-Minus Ensemble to Oxford! Join us then (Tuesday 27 January at 7pm) in St John’s Auditorium for an evening of electronic sounds, video, and incredible instrumental performance not to be missed. If you haven’t already, follow the link in the bio to reserve your free ticket, and we hope to see you there!
@plusminusensemble
@mark_knoop
@alice.purton
@stjohnsox

Photo: Deep Time at Fruitmarket. Courtesy Fruitmarket. Photos: Chris Scott

Tomorrow, EXMO welcomes Plus-Minus Ensemble to Oxford! Join us then (Tuesday 27 January at 7pm) in St John’s Auditorium for an evening of electronic sounds, video, and incredible instrumental performance not to be missed. If you haven’t already, follow the link in the bio to reserve your free ticket, and we hope to see you there!
@plusminusensemble
@mark_knoop
@alice.purton
@stjohnsox

Photo: Deep Time at Fruitmarket. Courtesy Fruitmarket. Photos: Chris Scott

Tomorrow, EXMO welcomes Plus-Minus Ensemble to Oxford! Join us then (Tuesday 27 January at 7pm) in St John’s Auditorium for an evening of electronic sounds, video, and incredible instrumental performance not to be missed. If you haven’t already, follow the link in the bio to reserve your free ticket, and we hope to see you there!
@plusminusensemble
@mark_knoop
@alice.purton
@stjohnsox

Photo: Deep Time at Fruitmarket. Courtesy Fruitmarket. Photos: Chris Scott

Some images relating to my concert next Wednesday 28 May at City University (link in bio). Joanna Bailie’s marblepark creates an “impossible” space: an open-air field recording inverted inside the acoustic of the adjacent marble-clad palace. An 1898 song recording is also incorporated into the electronics part.

The title of Newton Armstrong’s work is taken from the opening of Virginia Woolf’s The Waves: “The light struck upon the trees in the garden, making one leaf transparent and then another.” It perfectly describes the music: backlit harmonies unfold and invert in a slow-moving cascade, occasionally let astray by the subtle electronics.

I feel the influence of the sun and the open air in the rest of the programme too: Akiko Ushijima’s piece sparkles with coruscating activity, and the Debussy Préludes seem to translate the play of light into musical timbre and texture. Although apparently Debussy never visited the island of Capri, perhaps he received a similar postcard?

Although Chopin’s fourth ballade is often seen as a tragic and virtuosic work, for me its feature is his exquisite handling of detailed and evolving piano textures which foreshadows Debussy’s revolutionary developments 70 years later.

Images:
1. 1898 gramophone label for “I Dreamt That I Dwelt In Marble Halls”
2. Photo of Schloss Charlottenburg, Berlin
3. Portrait of Virginia Woolf
4. Postcard: “Panorama dalla Strada di Anacapri”

Some images relating to my concert next Wednesday 28 May at City University (link in bio). Joanna Bailie’s marblepark creates an “impossible” space: an open-air field recording inverted inside the acoustic of the adjacent marble-clad palace. An 1898 song recording is also incorporated into the electronics part.

The title of Newton Armstrong’s work is taken from the opening of Virginia Woolf’s The Waves: “The light struck upon the trees in the garden, making one leaf transparent and then another.” It perfectly describes the music: backlit harmonies unfold and invert in a slow-moving cascade, occasionally let astray by the subtle electronics.

I feel the influence of the sun and the open air in the rest of the programme too: Akiko Ushijima’s piece sparkles with coruscating activity, and the Debussy Préludes seem to translate the play of light into musical timbre and texture. Although apparently Debussy never visited the island of Capri, perhaps he received a similar postcard?

Although Chopin’s fourth ballade is often seen as a tragic and virtuosic work, for me its feature is his exquisite handling of detailed and evolving piano textures which foreshadows Debussy’s revolutionary developments 70 years later.

Images:
1. 1898 gramophone label for “I Dreamt That I Dwelt In Marble Halls”
2. Photo of Schloss Charlottenburg, Berlin
3. Portrait of Virginia Woolf
4. Postcard: “Panorama dalla Strada di Anacapri”

Some images relating to my concert next Wednesday 28 May at City University (link in bio). Joanna Bailie’s marblepark creates an “impossible” space: an open-air field recording inverted inside the acoustic of the adjacent marble-clad palace. An 1898 song recording is also incorporated into the electronics part.

The title of Newton Armstrong’s work is taken from the opening of Virginia Woolf’s The Waves: “The light struck upon the trees in the garden, making one leaf transparent and then another.” It perfectly describes the music: backlit harmonies unfold and invert in a slow-moving cascade, occasionally let astray by the subtle electronics.

I feel the influence of the sun and the open air in the rest of the programme too: Akiko Ushijima’s piece sparkles with coruscating activity, and the Debussy Préludes seem to translate the play of light into musical timbre and texture. Although apparently Debussy never visited the island of Capri, perhaps he received a similar postcard?

Although Chopin’s fourth ballade is often seen as a tragic and virtuosic work, for me its feature is his exquisite handling of detailed and evolving piano textures which foreshadows Debussy’s revolutionary developments 70 years later.

Images:
1. 1898 gramophone label for “I Dreamt That I Dwelt In Marble Halls”
2. Photo of Schloss Charlottenburg, Berlin
3. Portrait of Virginia Woolf
4. Postcard: “Panorama dalla Strada di Anacapri”

Some images relating to my concert next Wednesday 28 May at City University (link in bio). Joanna Bailie’s marblepark creates an “impossible” space: an open-air field recording inverted inside the acoustic of the adjacent marble-clad palace. An 1898 song recording is also incorporated into the electronics part.

The title of Newton Armstrong’s work is taken from the opening of Virginia Woolf’s The Waves: “The light struck upon the trees in the garden, making one leaf transparent and then another.” It perfectly describes the music: backlit harmonies unfold and invert in a slow-moving cascade, occasionally let astray by the subtle electronics.

I feel the influence of the sun and the open air in the rest of the programme too: Akiko Ushijima’s piece sparkles with coruscating activity, and the Debussy Préludes seem to translate the play of light into musical timbre and texture. Although apparently Debussy never visited the island of Capri, perhaps he received a similar postcard?

Although Chopin’s fourth ballade is often seen as a tragic and virtuosic work, for me its feature is his exquisite handling of detailed and evolving piano textures which foreshadows Debussy’s revolutionary developments 70 years later.

Images:
1. 1898 gramophone label for “I Dreamt That I Dwelt In Marble Halls”
2. Photo of Schloss Charlottenburg, Berlin
3. Portrait of Virginia Woolf
4. Postcard: “Panorama dalla Strada di Anacapri”

'Waves of crashing blackness', my work for solo piano+ written for and with the incredible @mark_knoop, will feature in this year's @nymusikk Only Connect Festival in Norway on April 3 (Stavanger) and April 10 (Trondheim).

I am honoured to revisit a project that means so much to me, to present my work at such a fantastic festival, and to be in such wonderful company.

I'll be participating in a panel discussion on April 4th at Sølvberget in Stavanger - pop in if you’re in town.

‘Waves’ was premiered at last September’s @anotherskyfestival.

༄ ༄ ༄

Who should I speak to? And where should I speak from? Am I still here? Or am I dust, forgotten in some soft, unending night?

This piece began as an act of alchemy, musical prima materia submitted to fire. Blackened. A vessel, transforming matter within and without.

I dragged this vessel with me, through 342 nights of bad dreams and bursts of madness. Through valleys of numbness.

I’m not sure what this piece is, finally.

I recognise its ripples and shifts. Its slow violence. Its interruptions crunch my bones. I feel its voids open, where impossible waters lap blackly at my feet.

📝APPLICATION DEADLINE 9th MARCH!

This course on 1.-6.7.2025 at the Time of Music Festival invites emerging pianists, instrumental duos and composers (born after 1.7 1991) to come together to create new works and talk about music together. Performers should either be solo pianists or an established duo of any instrumental combination. The course will be led in English by Mark Knoop (piano) and Matthew Shlomowitz (composer).

Through the conventional process of composers writing for performers, the course will examine the relationship between composer and interpreter, discussing the limits of these terms and the agency of each participant.

All tastes and persuasions are welcomed, from high-modern to hyper-pop, refined to trashy, and the focus will be on the signifying or sounding shape. Performative and theatrical aspects, use of electronics, and collaborative approaches are welcome.

The course will also include group sessions to discuss all aspects of contemporary musical life, including aesthetic and cultural issues and career trajectory.

Read more and leave your application through the Time of Music website ⏩ https://musiikinaika.org/en/olde-skool-calling/

📝APPLICATION DEADLINE 9th MARCH!

This course on 1.-6.7.2025 at the Time of Music Festival invites emerging pianists, instrumental duos and composers (born after 1.7 1991) to come together to create new works and talk about music together. Performers should either be solo pianists or an established duo of any instrumental combination. The course will be led in English by Mark Knoop (piano) and Matthew Shlomowitz (composer).

Through the conventional process of composers writing for performers, the course will examine the relationship between composer and interpreter, discussing the limits of these terms and the agency of each participant.

All tastes and persuasions are welcomed, from high-modern to hyper-pop, refined to trashy, and the focus will be on the signifying or sounding shape. Performative and theatrical aspects, use of electronics, and collaborative approaches are welcome.

The course will also include group sessions to discuss all aspects of contemporary musical life, including aesthetic and cultural issues and career trajectory.

Read more and leave your application through the Time of Music website ⏩ https://musiikinaika.org/en/olde-skool-calling/

🇬🇧 Let us present Mark Knoop, who will teach at Viitasaari Summer Academy this year!
👉 Teaches at London Guildhall School of Music
👉 Co-directs the Ensemble Plus-Minus
👉 Works with electronic instruments, multimedia, and movement
👉 Has commissioned and premièred countless new works by living composers
Apply to the course led by Knoop and his colleague Matthew Shlomowitz by 9th March! More info through our website:
⏩ www.musiikinaika.org

🇫🇮 Esittelyssä brittiläinen pianisti-kapellimestari Mark Knoop, joka saapuu kesällä Viitasaarelle opettamaan!
👉 Opettaa Lontoon Guildhall School of Musicissa
👉 Kuuluu Plus-Minus Ensemblen johtajiin
👉 Työskennellyt paljon elektronisten soitinten, multimedian ja liikkeen parissa, tilaa ja kantaesittää musiikkia nykysäveltäjiltä.
Hae Knoopin ja Matthew Shlomowitzin yhteiselle sävellyskurssille 9. maaliskuuta mennessä! Lisätiedot nettisivuillamme
⏩ www.musiikinaika.org

🇬🇧 Let us present Matthew Shlomowitz (Australia/United Kingdom), who makes his Finnish debute invited by the Viitasaari Summer Academy!

👉 Teaches at University of Southampton and at various courses (Darmstadt, Impuls Graz)
👉 Has composed, among many other things, music for turntable and orchestra, the award-winning opera Electric Dreams, and open score works combining physical action and music.
👉 Co-directs the Plus-Minus Ensemble.

Apply to the course led by Shlomowitz and Mark Knoop by 9th March! More info through this link:
https://musiikinaika.org/en/olde-skool-calling/

🇫🇮 Esittelyssä australialainen, Britanniassa asuva säveltäjä Matthew Shlomowitz, joka saapuu Viitasaaren kesäakatemian kutsumana ensimmäistä kertaa Suomeen opettamaan!
👉 Opettaa Southamptonin yliopistossa ja monilla kursseilla (mm. Darmstadt, Impuls Graz)
👉 Säveltänyt mm. DJ-laitteille ja orkesterille sekä palkitun oopperan Electric Dreams.
👉 Yksi Plus-Minus Ensemblen johtajista.

Hae Shlomowitzin ja Mark Knoopin yhteiselle sävellyskurssille 9. maaliskuuta mennessä! Kurssikuvaus ja ilmoittautumisohjeet täällä:
https://musiikinaika.org/olde-skool-kutsu/

The amazing @plusminusensemble are back in Edinburgh this week for the closing concert of the Edinburgh, @weekofsound, Friday 21 Feb, 2025, 7pm, Edinburgh College of Art, West Court @edinburghcollegeofart

A bit of very new music by me for my @braid__uk project exploring AI and sonic identity, some gorgeous recent music by @crane.laurence and some incredible re-inventions of some older music (Schoenberg in Hi-Fi ) by @awyanski. Come along.

European research trip

European research trip

European research trip

European research trip

Course Programme of the Viitasaari Summer Academy 2025 is published!

Come get inspired by:
💥Internationally acclaimed tutors
💥Wide range of approaches to composing and music-making
💥The astonishing nature landscapes and the rich festival programme.

Take a look at the detailed course descriptions through the link below 🔽🔽and apply by 9th / 23rd March!
https://musiikinaika.org/en/courses-2025/