Writing music for stage, film and dance invites you to work with a wide range of music/aestethics/styles.
This +3 hours playlist was made by Spottfy and is based on what listeners listen to mostly.
Release 2021-04-30
Musical influences
I am a classical trained guitarist and composer, but have a wide music taste that spans from medieval music, ethnic music, jazz, minimalism, the latest indie- and pop music etc.
The classical influences is mostly to be recognized in my works for stage productions.
In collaboration with choreographer Jeroen Verbruggen we usually come up with a specific classical masterpiece as a starting point for our creation.
The way I work is by investigating and isolating a known theme or a musical gesture and then process it in a microscopical way:
The very limited material will be looped, reversed, transposed, given rhythmic structures etc.
With those cells I sculpture the form and expressions needed for the specific scene.
Stage works – Inspirational backgrounds
Bach and "The Great Trust"
In "The Great Trust" (Hessisches Staatsbalett 2018) Jeroen challenged me to use the very famous Toccata in D-minor (BWV 565) by J.S. Bach as historical reference.
I choosed the sixteenth-figure (1.13 in the organ version) for "The Director and his Crew"and "Slowly going mad" and then the last six chords of the Toccata for "Finale - Again" .
Rachmaninoff and "Dancehall"
In "Dancehall" (Moscow Ballet Theatre 2019) the inspiration was Rachmaninov's "Trio élégiaque" where I used the opening chromatic descending bassline, representing the fight to survive and the sad part in this story...
Brouwer and "Paysage, Sodain, la Nuit"
In the collaborations with choreographer Pontus Lidberg we almost always end up with Schubert-references.
But in our latest stage creation (2019) with Acosta Danza, Cuba, we were inspired of Cuba's maestro Leo Brouwer's and his guitar quartet "Cuban Landscape with Rumba".
It took a playful way with a lot of synths plucking the strings....
All for Now!
A brand new 15 minute guitar quartet dedicated to Rebell Kvartetten, Sweden. Premiere fall 2021.
New Album 13/11 2020
Duo Nyman/Levin in collaboration with
Iranian clarinetist Soheil Peyghambari.
45 minutes of improvisations inspired from the stillness of the Swedish Nature.