Nightsongs, Daysongs: New York, night one

Judith Hamann is a cellist, composer, and performer who, in their process-driven and embodied practice, considers the ways sound operates as a subject, object, and actant. Trained in contemporary classical performance, they frequently challenge the boundaries of their instruments, whether the cello, voice, or body, considering how sonic thresholds offer generative sites of instability and movement. Their practice frequently crosses disciplines, incorporating improvisation, field recording, electro-acoustics, performance, and site-specific response, and is often collaborative in nature. In their recent research, Hamann examines the acts of shaking and humming as formal and intimate encounters; interrogates “collapse” as a generative imaginary surface; and considers the “de-mastering” of bodies, both human and non-human, in settler-colonial heritage instrumental practice and pedagogy.

Dafne Vicente-Sandoval, a native Parisian, explores sound through contemporary music performance, improvisation, and sound installations. After training at the Paris Conservatory, Vicente-Sandoval studied under the bassoonist Sergio Azzolini, who motivated her inquiries into tuning systems, timbral shades, and instrumental instability. Over the last decade, Vicente-Sandoval has dedicated herself to an in-depth instrumental practice, emerging from an intuitive experimentation into the complexities of the bassoon’s acoustical properties. Vicente-Sandoval also presents solo performances of microphone feedback generated through the resonant spaces of the bassoon itself. She and Arkbro share a compositional interest in seeking how the intonation of instruments coincides with the timbre of the room in which they are played.

Formed in 2010, Microtub are a trio composed of Robin Hayward on microtonal F-tuba and Peder Simonsen and Martin Taxt on microtonal C-tubas. Praised for their “fluttering beat patterns and rich, velvety sonorities,” Microtub deploys such carefully calibrated harmonies that their sound resembles a single synthetic, panoramic force rather than three separate instruments. The textural, sculptural chords are only revealed as such when the tubas diverge decisively into their own dark tones. Since their founding, Microtub have released six albums and performed at myriad international festivals including Ultima in Oslo, Sonic Acts in Amsterdam, CTM and MaerzMusik in Berlin, Wien Modern, FIMAV in Victoriaville, and Intonal in Malmö. Clouds for three tubas was commissioned by and premiered at Intonal 2022. As Arkbro puts it, the static, minimal characteristics of this work demand an extremely physical mode of playing from the tuba players. For the audience to encounter a piece of music that slows time impossibly, seeping gradually through perfectly balanced chord progressions, the tuba players need to be constantly recalibrating their breathwork and valve positioning.