you’re somehow connected

you're somehow connected reflects our time, culture, dreams about the future and reality based upon what came before us,
where we are now and what will come in the future. It reflects on how we are all somehow connected.

Since 2018, composer Lil Lacy has developed the piece in collaboration
with scenographer Jon R. Skulberg and electronic composer Tobias Sejersdahl.

Inspired by August Strindberg’s A Dream Play, where Agnes, the Vedic God daughter, sinks towards the Earth in the attempt to understand humans,
their agony and dreams, you’re somehow connected explores the matter of being through sound, light and air.

In the piece, new classical music and electronic composition, manipulated field recordings of the body, skin and breathing is incorporated
– as well as interviews with five people of different generations, nationalities and places about their dreams of the future:
Student Simran Skulberg de Souza (NO) in Bergen, college student Paulina Shtanko (BY) in Sct. Petersburg, visual artist Mohau Modisakeng (ZA) in Johannesburg, composer Marcos Balter (BR) in New York and writer Suzanne Brøgger (DK) in Copenhagen.

The piece reflects and freezes a momentary situation, a dream vision for the future, described in 2020. When the piece is performed in 2022 (and thereafter), one will experience a piece from the past, that talks about the future, a future we will know while experiencing the piece and by virtue of the time that has passed, and the thereby changed perspective, will invite reflection on what happened meanwhile;
how have we as human beings acted and navigated collectively, as well as individually?

you’re somehow connected does not aim to give answers,
but to describe a wide specter of dreams for the future, from a near past, through space, sound and light…
- what are your dreams for the future?
- how can one act or navigate individually as well as in collaboration to strive towards these dreams?
- and what is it that connects us across nationalities, cultures, generations and time, through the past, present and into the future?

The acoustic music, composed for accordion soloist Bjarke Mogensen and an ensemble of 14 musicians, is woven closely together with the electronic manipulated field recordings of granite stones grinding, everyday life,
the touch of skin, breath and blood flowing in the veins,
as well as electronic music and interviewed voices.

you’re somehow connected  was created as an audiovisual multichannel piece, staged in an abandoned shipyard in Kulturværftet, Helsingør, Denmark, with a scenography of choreographed smoke, affected by the weather.
you’re somehow connected will be premiered as a Dolby Atmos cinema production, at Nordic Music Days in Glasgow, Scotland, UK, 2024.

The complete duration is 75 min.

INTRODUCTION TO THE INTERVIEWED INDIVIDUALS

My name is Simran Sophia Skulberg de Souza, I am a 14-year-old girl from Bergen, Norway.
I am a student at the Waldorf school in Bergen in 9th grade. In my interview I talked about my dreams for my own future and my wishes for the whole world's future. I am so happy I could contribute to this unique piece.
Interview location: Bergen, Norway (skype), date: May 8, 2020

Sincerely believing that art will save the world, Belarusian Paulina Shtanko, 27 years old, lives in Saint-Petersburg, Russia, and studies for a master's program in Art and Culture Management. Works at the Street Art Research Institute, studies urban art and street art hunting and explores the city through art.
Interview location: Saint Petersburg, Russia (skype), date: May 28, 2020

Artist Mohau Modisakeng (b. 1986, Soweto, South Africa) lives and works between Johannesburg and Cape Town. His work engages race, the militarization of society and the deep divides of post-apartheid South Africa and the post-colonial continent. He interrogates the collective narratives that inform our experience of the world, in particular those that evoke the black body as a site of fragmentation and distortion. www.mohaumodisakengstudio.com
Interview location: Johannesburg, South Africa (skype), date: April 30, 2020

The music of visionary and politically active composer Marcos Balter (b.1974, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) is at once emotionally visceral and intellectually complex, primarily rooted in experimental manipulations of timbre and hyper-dramatization of live performance. www.marcosbalter.com
Interview location: New York, USA (skype), date: May 6, 2020

Suzanne Brøgger (b. 1944, Copenhagen, Denmark) is first and foremost a writer of both novels and short stories, a poet and a journalist. But she is also a debater and an intellectual, a performance artist, a musician and a singer, and furthermore she is a champion of the free word and the good mood. Her books have been translated into numerous languages and she has inspired and provoked many throughout her breathtaking career.
Interview location: Copenhagen, Denmark, date: February 5, 2020

you’re somehow connected was developed, composed and premiered as a live concert in 2020, as well as recorded in a special circular arrangement in collaboration with the internationally acknowledged sound producer Preben Iwan. Since then, the piece has been carefully developed into an audiovisual multichannel experience expressed through words, sound, space, light and bodies.
you’re somehow connected is presented as a part of PASSAGE festival and CLICK festival, from July 28 to August 28, 2022, where the piece can be experienced, for only five audiences at a time, in an old Shipyard at Kulturværftet, Elsinore.
The multichannel piece sound system has been realized in collaboration with Lydfabrikken ApS.

Performances 28. July - 28. August 2022
Kulturværftet, Hal 19

Thursday July 28th: 14.00 + 16.00 + 18.00 + 20.00
Friday July 29th: 17:00 + 19.00
Saturday July 30th: 14.00 + 16.00
Sunday July 31st: 14.00 + 16.00

Thursday August 4th: 16.00 + 18.00
Friday August 5th: 8.00 + 10.00
Saturday August 6th: 14.00 + 16.00
Sunday August 7th: 14.00 + 16.00

Thursday August 11th: 17.00 + 19.00
Friday August 12th: 17.00 + 19.00
Saturday August 13th: 14.00 + 16.00
Sunday August 14th: 14.00 + 16.00

Thursday August 18th: 17.00 + 19.00
Friday August 19th: 17.00 + 19.00
Saturday August 20th: 14.00 + 16.00
Sunday August 21st: 14.00 + 16.00

Thursday August 25th: 17.00 + 19.00
Friday August 26th: 17.00 + 19.00
Saturday August 27th: 12.00 + 14.00 + 16.00 + 18.00
Sunday August 28th: 12.00 + 14.00 + 16.00 + 18.00

THE CONCERT PERFORMANCES (2020 + 2021)

Excerpts of the concert premiere of you’re somehow connected in 2020
w. acc. soloist Bjarke Mogensen, Århus Sinfonietta w. guest musicians and conductor Rei Munakata.

THE DOLBY ATMOS CINEMA PRODUCTION (2024)

The staged audiovisual multichannel production of you’re somehow connected presented at Kulturværftet, Helsingør,
was filmed and developed into a Dolby Atmos cinema production that will be premiered at Nordic Music Days in Glasgow, Scotland, UK, 2024.

Filmed by Adam Jandrup
Edited and colorgraded by Kristopher Paterson
Recording and Dolby Atmos production by Preben Iwan
Scenography by Jon R. Skulberg and Olga Regitze Dyrløv Høegh 
Instruction on location by Olga Regitze Dyrløv Høegh and Lil Lacy

Composed by Lil Lacy and Tobias Sejersdahl

Performed by Accordion soloist: Bjarke Mogensen  
Ensemble: Århus Sinfonietta  with special guest musicians: 
Anna Jalving (viola), Frederik Sakham (contrabass),
Christian Martínez (percussion) and Mari Kawamura (piano)
Conductor: Rei Munakata

THE PODCAST

Sound producer Ida Skjerk has followed the development of the piece you’re somehow connected from the first spark of the idea in 2018,
through the process of composing, pre-recording, rehearsing, premiere, recording and now also into the creation of the multi-channel piece,
as well as the artistic dialogues, exploration and considerations there has been throughout. 

How does one create a new classical piece? Where does the inspiration come from?
How can one express an idea or a story through sound and daylight?

This podcast series invites the listener into the workshop of the composer, where the fundamental ideas, considerations, inspiration and processes are shared.
The series follows the composer and initiator Lil Lacy, the electronic composer Tobias Sejersdahl, the scenographer Jon R. Skulberg
and the sound producer Preben Iwan in the creation of the piece you’re somehow connected - a cross-aesthetic piece that combines
newly composed acoustic music, electronic music and manipulated field recordings with words, lights and bodies.
The podcast series is in Danish and is to be found via The Lake Radio podcasts (see link below).

CREATORS & COLLABORATORS

Concept and acoustic composition: Lil Lacy www.lillacy.dk

Electronic composition: Tobias Sejersdahl

Co-creator and scenographer: Jon R. Skulberg www.jonskulberg.com

Scenographer: Olga Regitze Dyrløv Høegh www.olgaregitze.com

Sound producer and head of recording in relation to recording, edit and mix of the acoustic music: Preben Iwan www.prebeniwan.com

Accordion soloist: Bjarke Mogensen www.bjarkemogensen.com

Ensemble: Århus Sinfonietta www.sinfonietta.dk
with special guest musicians:
Anna Jalving, viola www.annajalving.com
Frederik Sakham, contrabass
Christian Martínez, percussion
Mari Kawamura, piano www.marikawamura.net

Conductor: Rei Munakata

Acoustic composition mentor: Bent Sørensen
Acoustic composition supervisor: Martin Lohse www.martinlohse.com

Head of recording: Preben Iwan

Creator of podcast: Ida Skjerk

Visual design: Olga Regitze Dyrløv Høegh www.olgaregitze.com

Production manager: Kristine Bech Sørensen

Produced by Lil Lacy Music and Convoi Exceptionnel

Realized in collaboration with Lydfabrikken ApS

The production of the recording (2020) is made in collaboration with AUT (Aarhus Unge Tonekunstnere), Århus Sinfonietta and Lil Lacy Music

The audiovisual multichannel production (2022) is pesented by PASSAGE festival, CLICK festival and Kulturværftet in Helsingør

The Dolby Atmos Cinema Production (2024) is made in collaboration with and presented by Nordic Music Days

SUPPORTED BY

Det Obelske Familiefond
STATENS KUNSTFOND
Kodas Kulturelle midler
Augustinus Fonden
Dansk Komponistforening
Dansk Musiker Forbund
Louis-Hansen Fonden
William Demant Fonden
The Royal Academy of Music Aarhus
Dronning Margrethes & Prins Henriks Fond
Aarhus Kommunes Musikpulje
Dansk Kapelmesterforening
Art Music Denmark
- thank you.

Return to PROJECTS