Danish accordionist Andreas Borregaard presents two works written for him as part of his ongoing exploration of the contemporary music performer. Laura Bowler and Sam Redway’s POWER PLAY* (UK premiere) and Niels Ronsholdt’s Until Nothing Left both problematise power relations and hierarchies. Between musician and instrument, between human and machine, between group and individual, between performer and audience.
Strapped to the chest – the box as torso, the bellows as lungs, and with an almost inorganically flexible sound production – the accordion is an instrument closely connected to the musician’s body. Combined with the performer’s free voice and their face turned towards the audience, the instrument’s unique potential for theatrical performance becomes clear.
Since 2016, Andreas Borregaard has been exploring what it means for the instrumentalist to step into other domains of stage performance. This has led to a number of new works by acclaimed composers including Jennifer Walshe, Simon Steen-Andersen, Philip Venables, Laura Bowler, and Niels Rønsholdt, as well as a PhD in artistic research entitled Just Do It! – exploring the musician’s (use of) bodily performance (NMH, Oslo, 2023).
Although arising from quite different aesthetic perspectives, the two works featured in this concert both address various types of power relations. POWER PLAY, written by Laura Bowler and Sam Redway, is described as “a playful yet confronting examination of class, money and power, drawing on the traditions of commedia dell’arte. Andreas Borregaard, as Zanni, finds himself in a space of almost no control, no worth, and desperation. He is confronted by a voice of power presenting as human” (Bowler & Redway).
The theatrically charged atmosphere continues into Niels Rønsholdt’s less explosive but equally potent piece, Until Nothing Left. Here, the audience plays an active and essential role, as the work both fosters – and simultaneously questions – an unusual sense of community within the concert hall.
*Commissioned by MINU & Andreas Borregaard in collaboration with New Music Dublin & sound, with support from Augustinus.
