in brieflive

White as a Wound

Barbara Hannigan, Laura Bowler, Copenhagen Phil: »The White Book«

In The White Book, author Han Kang circles around grief by describing white things – such as one’s breath on a winter morning or the cloth in which a newborn is wrapped. Drawing on this poetics, Laura Bowler has created a work of the same name, which received its Danish premiere at the Royal Danish Academy of Music’s Concert Hall in Copenhagen.

Bowler evoked the same oppressive sense of untouched stillness in her exploration of the white. The soloist was Barbara Hannigan, whose voice moved through a wide range of registers, techniques, and expressions, yet each phrase remained immediate and sincere. Copenhagen Phil played with captivating attention to detail, constantly pulling the listener into the music’s »white« sonic surfaces. In particular, Bowler’s disciplined use of extended techniques (unconventional playing methods), slow glissandi, and noise-generating percussion created this sense of elevation.

Even the most brutal sounds possessed a refined and disarming fragility. One particular »creaking« sound from the percussion section moved me so deeply that I struggled to put into words the feeling it stirred in me.

My only reservation concerned the literary layer. The melodies moved too slowly through the words for a truly poetic experience to emerge. For that reason, I listened with particular interest to Bowler’s reflections in the talk that followed. There, she described how the work grew out of the overwhelming affect she experienced upon encountering The White Book. At the same time, she explained that the noise sound I had noticed was intended as an expression of longing. That was it, I thought – the word I had been searching for.

playlist

21.08

Mit navn er Fenja – vil du se min playliste?

»To me, music is love. I love how music allows you to skip the small talk and connect directly with people’s innermost selves. It is an extraordinary and moving way to meet one another.«

Fenja wrote her first song at the age of twelve – about a polar bear dying due to climate change – and themes of existentialism, nature, and her own sensitive nature came to define the lyrics and sound she has since developed. She released her debut album, Flugtdyr, in 2021, and in February 2026, she released the album Menneskedyr.

news

12.08

Sofus Forsberg (1970–2026)

Danish composer Sofus Forsberg has died at the age of 56. With his distinctive blend of melodic sensibility, electronic processing and rhythmic precision, he created a musical world that moved effortlessly between IDM, pop and the avant-garde.

playlist

11.08

Mit navn er Tue Track – vil du se min playliste?

»Music for me is my hobby, my job, my outlet, my mood, an endless source of discovering new music and new, old music, some of the best and can be some of the worst. And I love it!«

Track72 aka Tue Track aka Anders Lundby Brixen. Producer, DJ, rapper and more. Known for his role in the trio Malk De Koijn, which since the mid-1990s has created a personal universe in Danish hip-hop. Has performed in Ponyblod, Xtra Naan, Track Abdullah Rock, Booty Cologne and others.

news

07.08

639 Years in a Single Chord

On Wednesday, 5 August 2026, it happened again: a chord in John Cage’s Organ2/ASLSP (As Slow as Possible) changed after two and a half years. Classic FM reports.

The work was written by the American avant-garde composer John Cage in the mid-1980s. The score consists of eight pages of music, and, as the title suggests, the instruction is to play it »as slow as possible.«

playlist

06.08

My name is Gellért Szabó – would you like to see my playlist?

»What music is to me? Where have the great feelings gone?«.

Gellért Szabó is a composer, conductor and performer based in Leipzig, Germany. His work combines contemporary composition with influences from free improvisation, noise and the expressive richness of the late nineteenth century. He is the founder and artistic director of the 23-piece Ideal Orchestra, an ensemble dedicated to large-scale experimental music of sweeping emotional intensity. Alongside this work, Szabó performs internationally with his solo project Radical Radio Show, exploring symphonic textures and immersive sound worlds through a single electric guitar and live electronics. His music is driven by a search for intensity, vulnerability and uncompromising emotional expression.