the Cartography of Time is a cycle of solo works by Icelandic composer Davíð Bryjnar Franzson, an ongoing exploration of the experience of time. The works were developed in collaboration with Gnarwhallaby, Vicky Chow (Bang on a Can), Mariel Roberts, Matt Barbier and Weston Olencki (RAGE thrombones), Rusell Greenberg (Yarn|Wire), Matthias Engler, and Ingolfur Vilhjalmsson (Ensemble Adapter). Dark Music Days is dedicating a whole concert to a selection from the cycle, inviting the audience into an immersive experience of Franzson’s minimal and slowly unfolding sound world.

The programme

• the Cartography of Time (2015) for bowed cymbal and live electronics, ‘20

• the Cartography of Time (2014) for contrabass clarinet and live electronics, ‘15

• the Cartography of Time (2017) for bass drum and live electronics, ‘15

About the performers

Matthias Engler is a percussionist and experimental music producer based in Reykjavik and Berlin. Together with harpist Gunnhildur Einarsdóttir he founded Ensemble Adapter, a contemporary chamber music group, in 2004. He has worked for the group as percussionist, artistic director and manager ever since. Following his studies in Amsterdam he has also appeared as guest player with new music ensembles such as Ensemble Modern, MusikFabrik and many others. Performances at renowned festivals for contemporary music included collaborations with important composers of our time: Pierre Boulez, Helmut Lachenmann, Maurizio Kagel, Steve Reich a.o. Matthias regularly appears in experimental theatre productions and remains a member of the Brandt Brauer Frick Ensemble, an acoustic techno project from Berlin.

John McCowen is a composer/clarinetist focused on extending the possibilities of the contrabass clarinet and other instruments. John’s multiphonic approach embraces drones, difference tones, and beating harmonics as a means to extrude the compositional potential within a single, acoustic sound source. His work has been described by The New Yorker as “the sonic equivalent of microscopic life viewed on a slide”. Documents of this practice have been released by International Anthem, Edition Wandelweiser, Astral Spirits/Monofonus Press, Cairn Desk, Superpang, and others. John was an artist-in-residence in 2017/19 at Lijiang Studio in Yunnan, China as well as in 2020 at ISSUE Project Room in Brooklyn, NY.

About the composer

Davíð Brynjar Franzson is a freelancing composer based in Los Angeles. Projects include an Urban Archive as an English Garden, developed in collaboration with Halla Steinunn Stefansdottir (Nordic Affect), Russell Greenberg (Yarn/Wire), Julia Mogensen, and Matt Barbier (wasteLAnd); the Negotiation of Context, developed in collaboration with Yarn/Wire--described as "engagingly tactile" by the NY Times, "compelling" by the Wire which selected the release as one of their top 10 modern composition releases of 2014, and as "sonic art that is clearly going places" by Gramophone; the cello concerto on Matter and Materiality, commissioned by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and the Icelandic National Radio's commissioning fund--described as "strikingly static" by the Guardian; and the Cartography of Time, an ongoing exploration of the experience of time, developed in collaboration with Gnarwhallaby, Vicky Chow (Bang on a Can), Mariel Roberts, Matt Barbier and Weston Olencki (RAGE thrombones), Rusell Greenberg (Yarn|Wire), Matthias Engler, and Ingolfur Vilhjalmsson (Ensemble Adapter). A new recording of the monodrama longitude was released on Bedroom Community in Fall 2019. It made multiple year-end lists, and was described as "gorgeous and somewhat terrifying in equal measure." by 5:4. His most recent release–in collaboration with Stephanie Aston and wasteLAnd––voice fragments ,was released on Carrier Records in January. It has received critical praise with one reviewer exclaiming it as 'stunning' during the online premiere. Davíð co-runs Carrier Records--a label for new and experimental music--with Sam Pluta, Katie Young, and Jeff Snyder.