A Conversation Between the Sword and the Neck

On 4 November, Nathan Watts premiered my recent solo cello piece A Conversation Between the Sword and the Neck at the event ’20 Jahre Jüdische Stimme’ in Berlin. The composition is the first in a short cycle of works relating to the Palestinian author Ghassan Kanafani (1936-1972).

Bogliasco Foundation Fellowship

From mid-September to mid-October 2023, I’ll be a fellow at the Bogliasco Foundation, which brings together artists and scholars for one-month residencies on the Ligurian coast. I’ll use the time to work on Riddley Walker, my new music theatre project based on Russell Hoban’s 1980 post-apocalyptic novel of the same name. There are always many parameters to consider in music theatre, and it’s already clear that this will be something of an aesthetic departure for me, since what can reasonably called an overall modernist aesthetic in my music will be combined with a rugged, non-classical character manifest in the vocal style – a mixture of singing and speaking in the novel’s cockney-esque dystopian dialect – as well as the instrumentation, combining classical and non-classical instruments, including various makeshift percussion objects. The aim is also to create a site-specific staging, moving away from the rigid stage/audience duality of conventional theatre and opera in favour of a more involved experience (I avoid the word ‘immersive’, which I feel has more meditative connotations). Since the story is set in Kent, and Canterbury is the most significant location, it would be ideal in conceptual terms for the production to take place there. As the project is still in its early stages, none of these parameters are fixed yet. The language and cultural-historical background do make England a more logical location than Germany, however.

Premiere of Twisted Arrows

Photo from Nefeli Galani, Facebook post

On 10 February 2023, Mauricio Galeano and the Grow String Quartet gave the premiere of Twisted Arrows for 10-string guitar and string quartet at Alte Seilerei, Frankfurt. It was not only my first Frankfurt premiere in some years, but also part of a new series by this quite new quartet at a venue that has recently become part of the Frankfurt New Music scene. As a former rope factory, it’s an unconventional space that offers a variety of possible performance set-ups, something that’s being progressively explored by Grow and other groups. It was my first collaboration with Grow (I’d worked with their violinist Will Overcash and cellist Nathan Watts previously), and hopefully not the last.

Ongoing series of short solo pieces

After the recent completion of the soprano saxophone piece Zendegi bayad kard for Salim Javaid, it makes sense to post two other pieces in what is informally turning into a series of short solos: SCHANDE from 2020, played by Nathan Watts, and Buseh from 2022, performed by Dejana Sekulić.

Premiere and video of Sumud (Rules of Engagement III)

In June 2022, the piece Sumud (Rules of Engagement III) was finally played, three years after its composition and two after its originally scheduled premiere. The performance was by Contemporary Insights, conducted by Zachary Seely.

Interview with Contemporary Insights

Before the premiere of Sumud (Rules of Engagement III) in June 2022, I did a video interview with Contemporary Insights touching on a range of issues as well as the piece itself.

Contemporary Insights Academy 2021

From July 16-23 this year, I was composition tutor at the first edition of the Contemporary Insights Academy in Melle, northern Germany. This video gives an impression of the course, which is planned to take place annually.

Sumud postponed again

Thanks to the continued hazards of the coronavirus pandemic, the premiere of Part 3 of Rules of Engagement, the ensemble piece Sumud, has been postponed a second time. After the cancellation of the premiere in March 2020, it was set to be premiered this year in Leipzig on 25 March. It’s currently unclear when it will happen, and whether there might be a recording instead.

The Rules of Engagement Cycle

With the premiere of the third and final part of Rules of Engagement, the ensemble piece Sumud, happening soon, it’s an appropriate time to give some information about the cycle as a whole. Sumud will be premiered on 21 March at the Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy Academy of Music, Leipzig, by Contemporary Insights, conducted by Zachary M. Seely.

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Rules of Engagement (2013-2019)

Razor’s Edge live video

Nico Couck, fretless electric guitar
Ensemble Interface, conducted by Maurice Donnet-Monnay
Transit Festival Leuven, 19 October 2019

Filmed by Jason Thorpe Buchanan