Montréal/Fredericton based electroacoustic composers collective Trajectories will put on a special audiovisual performance with guest composer Emily Kennedy at Saint John Arts Centre on April, 20, 2024 to celebrate sights and sounds from their latest project entitled “Quiet on Kökar”. This 9-piece collection of etudes was developed while attending The Åland Archipelago Guest Artist Residence program in Kökar, Åland, Finland throughout October 2023. The event itself will consist of live audio performance from Trajectories backed by a video accompaniment containing archival images of Kökar collected from the local museum as well as video documented by the collective throughout their stay.
This performance will follow their February 2024 live Canadian debut in Montréal as part of programming by Codes d’accès, which drew over 100 people. They will also be performing on April 19, 2024 at Fredericton’s Charlotte Street Arts Centre as part of Connexion ARC’s 40th Anniversary programming, which will include local soundmakers Emily Kennedy and Counting on Downstairs. In May 2024, the group will embark on a 1-week creative residency and performance at Sound Art Lab in Struer, Denmark, followed by 2 performances in Sweden at the start of June.
Trajectories Website:
https://www.trajectories.net
Emily Kennedy Website:
http://www.emily-kennedy.com/
Trajectories Music:
https://trajectoriescollective.bandcamp.com/album/quiet-on-k-kar
Trajectories Bio:
Trajectories is an ensemble of electroacoustic composers and interdisciplinary artists based in Montréal and New Brunswick consisting of Charles Harding, Malte Leander, Connor Cook, and the late Michael Pinsonneault. The collective centers its exploration on a vast array of multi-disciplinary projects that delve into diverse and pertinent themes. Through a dynamic interplay of collaborative insights, the collective navigates and reflects upon contemporary issues, events, and research areas, with each member’s unique perspective influencing the group’s trajectory and vice versa.
In October 2023, Charles Harding, Connor Cook, and Malte Leander participated in the Åland Archipelago Guest Artist Residence program (Kökar, Åland, Finland), a transformative experience that led to the creation of “Live on Kökar,” a series of captivating performance videos, and “Quiet on Kökar,” an album of etudes released on February 9, 2024. This 3-week period of intense creativity and reflection also inspired an upcoming documentary short, chronicling their immersive engagement with Kökar’s history, community, ecology, and environment. This exploration into Kökar’s landscape and heritage has opened new avenues for their practice-based research, laying the groundwork for exciting developments in their artistic journey.
Music Description:
The album Quiet on Kökar was conceived of during a recent artist residency undertaken on the small island of Kökar in the Åland Archipelago in Finland, experimenting with a variety of recording set-ups and collaborative compositional techniques, following ideas of the non-anthropocentric positioning of the artist, both at the time of recording, composing and performing.
The island of Kökar is a quiet and serene environment, located in the middle of the Baltic Sea between Sweden and Finland, amongst a grand archipelago called Åland that consists of thousands of tiny and large islands. This particular island is home to approximately 225 people who live in a place accessible exclusively by boat and helicopter. Kökar has a deep spiritual history; having been a point on the Nordic Pilgrimage route “St. Olav Waterway” since at least the 14th century. Small enough to walk across in a few hours, the island is fiercely exposed to the weather of the sea. At one point during the stay there was a record breaking wind storm that snapped trees and shook the house. It was a very humbling experience and served as a sobering reminder of the unstoppable forces of nature. Through visits to the Kökar museum and communication with residents of the island there were new lessons learned about the vulnerability of the island’s ecosystem as well as the dutiful efforts the community is taking to maintain conscious sustainability in daily life. Throughout its settled history the island has seen many cycles of abundance and scarcity connected to the amount of energy it takes to sustain human populations. The recognition of this vulnerability was ever present while engaging in creative processes during the 3 weeks of the residency.
Throughout the stay there were efforts made to document expeditions utilizing field recorders, hydrophones and various cameras to become immersed in the sights and sounds of Kökar. The aim was to nurture gradually emerging artistic themes surrounding the island’s ecological and historical character and, as a result, engage in new work with personal meaning amplified by the island’s deeper context. Kökar revealed many things, sharing reminders of the fragility of ecosystems and the irrevocably intertwined connections between human and non-human agents in even the most remote environments, awareness of which will be carried forward into future Trajectories work.
Thank you to the Åland Archipelago Guest Artist Residence and to Kökar Hembygdsmuseum.
We would like to thank and acknowledge the support of SOCAN Foundation for helping to make this project possible.
An important part of this process was the mentorship, guidance and creative input of the late Michael Pinsonneault, who was incredibly generous with his time and energy, and was an essential part of this group from its inception. Before we left for Kökar, we spoke at length with Michael about the blueprints for what a creative journey like this residency could lead to. We have lost our teacher, collaborator and friend and wherever he is now, we wish him the best, and will keep him in our hearts. The example Michael set will allow us to continue to create with presence, openness and curiosity, and we will do so in his honour. Rest in peace M.P.