ROLF WALLIN (b.1957): Phonotope I, JON ØIVIND NESS (b.1968): Beware of Darkness, SVEN LYDER KAHRS (b.1959): Ein Hauch um nichts, RAGNHILD BERSTAD (b.1956): Toreuma.

Description: Berstad's piece sets out to elevate the little details, ornaments, even bowing noises, that are normally subsidiary parts of music, to the status of its actual substance. The work consists of bows skittering on strings, and noise textures; when normal played tones occur they create a somewhat shocking effect. The Ness is a melancholy, angry work, conceived in the aftermath of 9/11 and its worldwide implications. It draws harmonic material from a song by George Harrison, of the Beatles, who had recently died when the work was written; this is broken up and fragmented into aggressive shards and splinters of sound. Kahrs' work takes extended techniques and unusual timbres even further, with abrupt contrasts between contradictory concepts expressed in raw sound. Wallin's Phonotope 1 has no overall score; the players are assigned material which is performed freely, within clearly defined limits. They also interact in real time with computer-transformed sounds, some pre-recorded, others generated from the live playing of the quartet. Arditti Quartet.