Last year ensemble Brooomm! asked me to make a piece for them. I do not write notes or scores, but I was excited about the idea since they are a unique ensemble playing contemporary music with harpsichord, saxophone, cello and percussion / turntables. The piece I came up with is called Synthese (Synthesis), I wanted to merge my own sound world with the sounds and skills of the ensemble.

First I made an electronic composition with four parts, each of them small musical stories. Each instrument triggers the playback of one of the four parts, with an audio to midi trigger (using junXion software). The task of the players in the first part is to interrupt each other and improvise with the material. The second part was a quiet part, with some electronic playback of the recorded cello, improvisation on the turntable and a continuous sound of harpsichord notes using an ebow. I imagined the third part as a very short, dreamy ending soaked in reverb, where everything comes together in a strange way.

The piece was premièred at Club Brooomm! in Korzo (Binck location) in Den Haag, together with other music and dance performances, october 15th 2010. Dancer Joeri Dubbe improvised to the music. The piece was also performed at the Kikker in Utrecht December 10th.

SYNTHESIS 14:32″ Ivo Bol 2010
composition for ensemble, turntable and LiSa
performed by Ivo Bol and ensemble Brooommm

In this new piece for electronics, turntable and LiSa software the musicians trigger and improvise with small electronic sound events, merging and combining everything in a new synthesised sound world. The electronic music events are based upon samples from soul records from the seventies, this time not used in a hiphop context but to create a dreamy alchemy with the instrumentalists of ensemble Brooommm.

Frank Wienk – turntable, Nina Helvert – Soprano Saxophone, Jan WiIlem Troost – Cello, Teodora Stepancic – Spinet (Korzo) / Goska Isphording – harpsichord (Utrecht), Ivo Bol – Electronics / LiSa