This November, Edinburgh Fruitmarket Gallery presents their first festival of new music featuring commissions and performances from some of the leading radical and experimental composers, musicians and improvisors working today. They are brought together in the context of deep time to explore ideas of time and temporality; stasis and movement; provocation and play; ritual and activism in art and music, drawing their inspiration from geology, philosophy, popular culture, the natural world and the need for art to engage with the reality of the climate crisis.
Deep Time is a philosophical concept developed by the nineteenth-century Scottish-born geologist Charles Lyell (1797–1875) that revealed the immensity of time as stretching back long before the human era, and shifted our understanding of the Earth, its history and the impact of human activity on its climate and geological processes. This understanding is ever more relevant as this impact intensifies, global warming increases and the window to take climate action is closing.
Fruitmarket Director Fiona Bradley said “It’s wonderful to see experimental new music in our new warehouse, a space we built for artistic innovation and exploration. It’s an honour to host these artists as they make space for us to think about the urgent issue of climate breakdown.”
The 16th November sees experimental performance group p.e.r.s.o.n.a.l.c.l.u.t.t.e.r. who will perform a new Fruitmarket commission by recent winner of, among others the Ernst von Siemens Förderpreis 2023, composer Sara Glojnarić. The programme will also include works from Jennifer Walshe and Jessie Marino along with UK premieres of works by Berglind María Tómasdóttir and Esin Gunduz and a world premiere from Jenni Hogan.
On 17th November there is an evening of improvisation brought together around the theme of deep time featuring pianist Pat Thomas, percussionist and multi-disciplinary artist Angela Wai Nok Hui and cellist and improvisor Simone Seales.
The 18th November sees the Scottish premiere of Claudia Molitor’s Polymer Hauntings (2022), performed by Yshani Perinpanayagam and Katherine Tinker as part of a programme entitled ‘Provocation vs Play’ that will also include works by George Crumb, Njabulo Phungula, Max Syedtollan, Gillian Walker and Uri Agnon that include world premieres.
The festival closes on 19th November with a new Fruitmarket commission by Dundee-based composer and improvisor Shiori Usui for Plus Minus Ensemble, written during a residency in the Lyell Archive, in partnership with the University of Edinburgh, as part of a programme which will also include works by Liza Lim, Daví∂ Brynjar Franzson, Bernhard Lang and Laurence Crane.
The festival will include an in conversation between Fruitmarket-commissioned composer Sara Glojnarić and presenter of BBC Radio 3’s New Music Show Kate Molleson.
The performances will be followed every evening by drinks and late night DJ sets and curated playlists by artists in the programme in the Fruitmarket Café.
Deep Time festival runs from 16th to 19th November 2023.
Irene Brown
Radio Summerhall Arts 