Örjan Sandred

String Quartet and live electronics

Sketches of Shifting Landscapes

In 2022 I was awarded a fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. This made it possible for me to develop a unique project that resulted in a larger composition for string quartet and live electronics. Among other things, the project explored the use of algorithms from artificial intelligence to generate parts of the electronic voice live during the concert.

The initial step for this project was to develop a constraint solving algorithm that could handle live input while solving a problem. In other words, it made it possible to dynamically generated the score for the live electronics based on what the musicians were performing. This algorithm was implemented in the Max software in collaboration with the French composer and computer musician Julien Vincenot.

I collaborated with the Stenhammar String Quartet in Stockholm that helped me test some ideas, both on a technical level (the interaction with the A.I. algortihm) and on a musical level (by workshopping score fragments and musical ideas). We were able to use Studio 2 at EMS (the Swedish electroacoustic music and sound-art) in Stockholm through their support of the project.

The new composition was premiered by the Stenhammar String Quartet at a live@CIRMMT concert in the MMR concert hall in Montreal, and then performed at a Ground Swell concert at the Winnipeg Art Gallery in November 2024.