Red Super Giant
Red Super Giant is a collaboration between GROW String Quartet and the composer Raphaël Languillat. With this project we expand the boundaries of the traditional instrumentation of the string quartet. All our instruments are amplified and their sound palette is transformed with various effect pedals creating drones, beats and distortions. The result is a 30-minute piece that oscillates between improvisation and composition, complex soundscapes and noise.
“A Red Super Giant is a large pulsating star at the end of its life — an unstable mass that varies constantly, drawing gradually more into its orbit, while radiating waves of energy back outwards — and vibrating long after its power went out.”
https://www.raphaellanguillat.com/rsg/
Performances:
February 25, 2022 at Dr. Hoch’s Conservatorium, Frankfurt in February
October 28, 2022 at Art.ist Wiesbaden in October.
Experiments in Living
Experiments in Living features digital art by Sam Tsao.
Performances:
September 17, 2022 at Seilerbahn Offenbach
February 12, 2023 at Plantage 13 Bremen
Experiments in Living is an exploration of the human experience, featuring the voices of composers from diverse backgrounds. We combine virtuoso works by Jamilia Jazylbekova, Enno Poppe, Katherine Balch, Rebecca Saunders and George Lewis. The result is a multispectral display that shows many facets of the string quartet formation.
“Le Refus de l’enfermement” by Jazylbekova takes the listener on a journey through the intense experience of captivity, moving between bleak landscapes and the recoil of explosive emotions.
Rebecca Saunders’ quartet “Unbreathed” is an intense, dramatic work that explores suffering, self-knowledge and hope.
We contrast this heavy piece with the light-footed work “Freizeit” by Enno Poppe. In a humorous dramaturgy, the quartet uses the movement of turning pages as a musical device.
Katherine Balch‘s “Drip Music” invites the audience into the intimacy and complexity of a string quartet’s quiet conversations.
The closing piece is the inspiration that brings all this music together, George Lewis‘ String Quartet No. 1.5: “Experiments in Living.” This quartet represents a struggle between group mentality and individuality, requiring each member of the quartet to leap quickly and virtuously out of homogeneous structures to assert themselves individually – and back.
Frankfurt Grown
Putting this project together has been an absolute delight for us since all the music in the program comes right out of Frankfurt, composed by friends and colleagues in the Hessen contemporary music scene.
For this program we commissioned two new works, one for 10 string guitar and quartet by Wieland Hoban, and one by our good friend and supporter Farhad Hosseini. We also play Yoik on Wax by Diego Ramos Rodriguez and LAN-Party by Julia Mihaly.
Each piece approaches the concept of sound production of a string quartet from a different angle. Hoban’s piece augments the 16 strings of our quartet with 10 more via acoustic guitar. Ramos’ work is inspired by wax cylinder recordings from the turn of the 20th century. Julia Mihaly pays tribute to 8-bit arcade music and Hosseini has created an intricate vibrating medium between our instruments made of cassette tape.
Frankfurt Grown is a celebration of the rich musical scene in Frankfurt, and a homage to the amazing composers that live in our city.
Performances:
February 10, 2023 at Seilerbahn Offenbach
Mother Tongue: Songs of the Earth
Mother Tongue: Songs of the Earth is a project centred around Hans Zender‘s Hölderlin Lesen III for string quartet and narrator The program is about language, self-expression, and our connection to the Earth. Alongside Zender we play Canciones Lunaticas by Hilda Paredes and the world premiere of Jalalu-Kalvert Nelson‘s String Quartet No. 3.
This program features art by Ben Llewellyn and poetry by Lubi Barre.
Performances:
May 6, 2023 at Seilerbahn Offenbach