Ever Present Orchestra

Alvin Lucier and members of the Ever Present Orchestra.
Alvin Lucier and members of the Ever Present Orchestra.

The Ever Present Orchestra is dedicated to the presentation of the exceptional work of Alvin Lucier. The orchestra attempts to make Lucier’s beating-pattern-focused instrumental music approachable to a wide audience with its uncommon instrumentation of four electric guitars, three saxophones, four violins and piano. Along with classical musicians, the presence of prominent Lucier interpreters such as Stephen O’Malley and Oren Ambarchi, allows for the ensemble to appeal to a wider audience than the conventional contemporary music scene.
The Orchestra was founded by Bernhard Rietbrock during the 85th Birthday Festival of Alvin Lucier at the Zurich University of the Arts. It was named after Lucier’s composition ‘Ever Present’ (2002). Its unusual instrumentation came about as a result of the adaption for electric guitars of the Lucier piece Hannover (2015). Alvin Lucier kindly supports this initative, was involved in the naming of the Ever Present Orchestra, and has recently composed a new piece for the ensemble titled “Semcircle” (2017).

Line Up

  • Bernhard Rietbrock is a musician, producer, and research associate at the Institute for Theory at the Zurich University of the Arts. He is the head of the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF) research project “Reflexive Experimental Aesthetics after Alvin Lucier” and artistic director of the Ever Present Orchestra, which is dedicated to the presentation of the exceptional work of Alvin Lucier.

    [Translate to English:] Bernhard Rietbrock

  • Oren Ambarchi is a multi- instrumentalist with longstanding interests in transcending conventional instrumental approaches. His work focuses mainly on the exploration of the guitar, rerouting the instrument into a zone of alien abstraction where it’s no longer easily identifiable as itself.
    Instead, it’s a laboratory for extended sonic investigation.

    [Translate to English:] Oren Ambarchi

  • Gary Schmalzl is a renowned German guitarist who participated with the ‘Ensemble der Länder’ at the Via Nova Festival for Contemporary Music in Weimar, Germany, as well as in the Music Academy Rheinsberg. Schmalzl played works by Johannes K. Hildebrandt, Carlotta Rabea Joachim, Giordano Nascimento, Sergei Prokofjew, Micki Meuser and Grant Stevens.

    [Translate to English:] Gary Schmalzl

  • Jan Thoben is a musician and musicologist from Berlin. He has published essays on the work of John Cage and Alvin Lucier and since 2014 has worked at the master’s program Sound Studies and Sonic Arts (UdK Berlin). Thoben joined several bands and ensemble projects as guitarist and drummer. Together with composer Boris Hegenbart he formed the audiovisual performance duo ‘60Hz’.

    [Translate to English:] Jan Thoben

  • Stephen O’Malley (sometimes referred to as SOMA) is a guitarist, producer, composer, and visual artist from Seattle, Washington who has conceptualized and participated in numerous drone doom, death/doom, and experimental music groups, the most notable of which is Sunn O))). In 2011 he began curating and art directing the Ideologic Organ record label, in association with the Viennese Editions Mego.

    [Translate to English:] Stephen O’Malley

  • Percussionist Trevor Saint plays new music for glockenspiel. He performs the first solo works for the extended-range instrument, and works regularly and in various ways with composers Christopher Burns, Jeff Herriott, Matt Sargent and Alvin Lucier.
    He plays in Tanngrisnir (with Christopher Burns, electric guitar), a duo with computer-controlled lighting and algorhythmically cut-up video projections, and Skewed and Such (with Jeff Herriott, laptop/percussion), a duo exploring the subtleties of resonant metals and real-time electronics processing. His recent projects include composing and instrument building for Pillars of Decay (a collaboration with Skewed and Such, Matt Sargent and Amanda Schoofs, focusing on homemade instrument fabricated from salvaged metals, realized and intensified with electronics: #pillarsofdecay), Archipelago, an evening-length multimedia composition with Tanngrisnir, and a series of solo glockenspiel pieces by Matt Sargent.

  • Rebecca Thies, violinst from Germany, studied in Stuttgart with Christine Busch and since 2015 with Nora Chastain in Zürich. Playing in several orchestras as well as playing chamber music or as a soloist are components of her musical career.

    [Translate to English:] Rebecca Thies

  • Valentine Michaud is a saxophonist who was born in France in 1993 and has lived in Switzerland since 2010. Her repertoire encompasses a wide range of styles, including contemporary works, baroque and classical transcriptions, and improvisation. Valentine has been awarded numerous prizes at international competitions.

    [Translate to English:] Valentine Michaud

  • Joan Jordi Oliver is a saxophonist devoted to new music, who regularly collaborates with composers and artists from other fields and has an strong interest in improvisation and electronic music. He is currently studying in the ZHdK with Lars Mlekusch.

    [Translate to English:] Joan Jordi Oliver Arcos

  • Charles Ng is regarded as a prominent and emerging classical saxophonist from Hong Kong. Dedicating himself to modern music, Ng has been working closely with composers and premiering new compositions.

    [Translate to English:] Charles Ng

Repertoire

Compositions by Alvin Lucier

Double Helix (2018), Flight Path (2018), Tilted Arc (2018), Semicircle (2017), Hanover (2015), Braid (2012), Two Circles (2012), Criss-Cross (2013), Panorama II (Copied Lines) (2011), Shadow Lines (2013), Firewood (2013), August Moon (2015), Just Before Dark (2010), On the Carpet of Leaves Illuminated by the Moon (2000/2012)

Concerts

Alvin Lucier and the Ever Present Orchestra:
Illuminated by the Moon Book/Record Release Tour 

2017

  • 10 Oct: Berlin, St. Elisabeth Kirche
  • 7 Nov: Philadelphia Ars Nova Workshop, FringeArts
  • 8 Nov: New York City, Issue Project Room (plus performances by Joan La Barbara)
  • 9 Nov: New York City, Issue Project Room
  • 11 Nov: Boston, Non-Event, Laboratoire Cambridge supported by Swissnex
  • 12 Nov: Montreal, Concordia University, Black Box
  • 13 Nov: Chicago, Constellation

2018

  • 27 March: Hongkong, Connecting Spaces
  • 29 March: Shanghai, Conservatory of Music (plus academic exchange, 30 March)
  • 1 April: Kyoto
  • 3 April: Tokyo, Superdeluxe 
  • 4 April: Tokyo, Superdeluxe 
     
  • 30 May: Cologne, Kunststation Sankt Peter
  • 31 May: Berlin, Universität der Künste, Joseph Joachim Saal
     
  • 20 July: New York, Issue Project Room, Sonic Arts Union Celebration
  • 21 July: New York, Issue Project Room, Sonic Arts Union Celebration
     
  • 4 October: Chur, Bündner Kunstmuseum
  • 17 October: New York, Issue Project Room
  • 23 October: Paris, St. Merry Church

Upcoming events 2019

  • 12 March, London, Round Chapel (13 March, Academic Exchange ZHdK / Royal Academy of Music)
  • 22 March, Knoxville, Tennessee, Big Ears Festival 
  • 24 March: Knoxville/Tennessee: Big Ears Festival
  • 26 March: Los Angeles, RedCat in cooperation with California Institute of the Arts

Press clippings

Lucier «Illuminated by the Moon» Box set reviews

Concert reviews

Academic Exchange

Workshops   

  • On Experimental Composition Techniques and the Repertoire of Alvin Lucier (+ Performance Workshop) (Bernhard Rietbrock, Jan Thoben)
  • Instrumental Improvisation Workshop (Oren Ambarchi)
  • Alvin Lucier Score Analysis Workshop (Felix Profos, Bernhard Rietbrock, Jan Thoben)

Lectures

  • Dieter Mersch, From Science to Art. Alvin Lucier’s Experimental Compositions as Artistic Research
  • Volker Straebel (UdK, Berlin), Experimental Music Beyond Sonification
  • Sabine Sanio (UdK, Berlin), The Musical Spaces of Alvin Lucier
  • Jan Thoben, Vibratory Alchemy: Science and the Senses in the Work of Alvin Lucier
  • Bernhard Rietbrock, Alvin Lucier and the Minimal Difference