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More Electroacoustic Music in Sweden!
SEAMS
is the Society for Electroacoustic Music in Sweden. Its hundred
or so members are composers, sonic artists and other related people.
The Society’s record label is called Elektron and releases about
two records of Swedish electroacoustic music every year. More
information about the label and its releases can be found at http://www.elektron.nu.
SEAMS is dedicated to creating more space for electroacoustic
music in Swedish musical life. During the years 2001-2003, SEAMS
is organising a tour project, Mereamis, with 15 concerts around
Sweden. We, the members of SEAMS, strongly believe that there
exists an audience for electroacoustic music outside Stockholm,
Gothenburg and Malmoe, the three biggest cities in Sweden, but
that we have to actively reach out to that audience, and let them
know that we and our music exist. In order to achieve this, the
Mereamis project was initiated in 2000 by the board of SEAMS and
its former chairman Rolf Enström.
The name Mereamis is an acronym for MER ElektroAkustisk
Musik I Sverige, that is, More Electroacoustic Music in Sweden,
and the goal of the project is to promote and diffuse (pun intended)
electroacoustic music to the countryside of Sweden or at least
to parts of Sweden outside the cities mentioned above. A further
goal of Mereamis is to get in touch with concert arrangers and
other music societies. The project was started by sending out
a call for tours and concerts to the members of SEAMS. A tour
would have to fulfil several criteria to be accepted. Some of
these were: The concerts should consist of works for tape alone,
for tape and instruments and/or for live electronics The board
felt that it is important to let the audience meet the composers
face to face. Therefore, the composers should be present at the
concerts, performing their own music and discussing it with the
audience. Each concert is to be performed in three different locations
outside the bigger cities The composers are responsible for concert
bookings, sound and transportation The local arrangers are responsible
for advertising and lodging Ten proposals were sent in, from which
the board then selected the five most interesting tours.
The composers involved in these five tours are:
Ylva Q. Arkvik, Johan Fernold, Jens Hedman och
Martin Q. Larsson: Music for cello and tape
Magnus Alexandersson och Anders Blomqvist: Music
for tape (compositions by 6 composers: besides the two mentioned,
they are Jonas Broberg, Erik Mikael Karlsson, Love Mangs and Kent
Olofsson)
Mats Lindström, Sören Runolf och Anders
Blomqvist: Live electronics
Kent Tankred, Leif Elggren och Johannes Bergmark:
Live electronics
Mattias Petersson och Martin Jonsson: R:E:A:L:M,
live electronics
More than half of these 15 concerts have since
then been performed (for a list of the concert locations, see
below) and the rest of them will be performed during winter and
spring 2003. Pär Johansson, Former secretary of SEAMS Mereamis,
is subsidised by Stiftelsen Framtidens kultur (The
Foundation Culture of the Future). In addition, EMS/Svenska
Rikskonserter (Electroacoustic Music in Sweden/The Swedish
National Concert Institute) subsidises an additional concert per
tour to be held at Fylkingen. The audio equipment used has in
most cases been the Hall-system of EMS/Rikskonserter, consisting
of several loudspeakers, amplifiers and CD and DAT players. The
Hall-system can be freely used by all Swedish composers.
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