CIRCLE (2021)
I - CREATION // A Grand Opening
II - GESTATION // Starman
III - GROWTH // Alien Lullaby
IV - DECLINE // Marshall
V - DEATH // Abide by Me
VI - AFTERLIFE // Meurig
Circle (2021) is a chamber opera for a singer and an ensemble consisting of a flute, saxophone, percussion, guitar and double bass. The piece also has a video track and audio recordings running throughout the piece. It was written for- and premiered by Þórgunnur Anna Örnólfsdóttir and NJYD. The premiere was directed by Anna Sofie Keller Brandsborg.
The piece was constructed as a kind of a collage of found videos, recordings and texts with a unifying sci-fi/supernatural theme. The various sources include clips from two different Japanese B-movies; Attack From Space (1965) and Warning from Space (1956), recordings of British1930’s medium Mrs. Meurig Morris and clips and quotes from a speech by American cult leader Marshall Applewhite. The piece also seeks inspiration from an Icelandic lullaby, ribbon-cutting ceremonies, hymns, space western music and other sci-fi tropes.
These disparate videos, recordings, texts and ideas were arranged into six movements that each focus on a different stage of human existence; from conception, to gestation, to childhood, to adulthood and decline, to death and then finally beyond. The piece’s structure and title hints at the idea of the whole cycle being repeated again and again.
The piece was commissioned by NJYD and written with support from Statens Kunstfond and KODA Culture.
