Lisa Stenberg - Monument LP/CD

Monument from Swedish composer Lisa Stenberg was composed during residency in Athens with additional recordings in Osnabrück, originally commissioned by the art festival documenta 14, as part of a collaboration between KSYME-CMRC, documenta 14, Elektronmusikstudion and Fylkingen, to restore and reactivate KSYME-CMRC’s rare synthesizer EMS Synthi 100 that had not been in working condition for more than 20 years. 

The album features five tracks with the magnificent Synthi 100 in Athens and the Synthi 200 in Osnabrück as the only sound sources. With the rich, warm and massive sound of the analog/digital hybrid synthesizer, Monument is a dense, captivating drone suite that draws the listener in and demands their full attention. It’s an invitation to contemplation and to lose oneself in texture and movement of oscillating waves. Lisa Stenberg tuned herself carefully to the historical instrument and its generous interface enabled detailed compositions of layered sounds and events. Several of the pieces are one-take live recordings, later processed with rich distortion and impulse response reverb.  

Monument was premiered in 2017 at the Megaron Athens Concert Hall - one of only a handful of concerts ever organized with the synthesizer, with Lisa Stenberg probably the first woman in history to perform the EMS Synthi 100 live on stage. Since then Lisa has performed Monument on European stages and festivals in various contexts as a solo performance, diffused in acousmonium and as an audiovisual piece with video projections, created in collaboration with motion designer Lois Nygren.

The work of Lisa Stenberg originates from classical and electroacoustic traditions specifically with focus on the immersive qualities and this album is no exception. Her music resonates naturally with the early electronic music pioneers Éliane Radigue and Pauline Oliveros but also calls to mind the denser work of Ben Frost, Abul Mogard and Kevin Drumm.

Monument reverberates through time, both timeless and transformative.

Biography

Lisa Stenberg is a composer and musician hailing from Luleå in the north of Sweden, based in Stockholm. Texture, timbre and spatiality in relation to an intensified listening situation and music as embodied experience is central to her work. She is member of legendary Fylkingen and composer at world renowned Elektronmusikstudion EMS.

Her work has been commissioned and performed at festivals and art venues of experimental and extreme music, such as Donaufestival in Krems (AU), Inversia in Murmansk (RS), Norbergfestival, Norberg (SE), Open Source Art Festival in Gdansk/ Sopot (PL), Intonal festival in Malmö (SE), Sonica festival in Ljubljana (SI) and highly acclaimed documenta in Athens (GR).