Subchamber Ensmble

Pulling from Alice Coltrane’s ecstatic energy plus Lamonte Young’s drone strategies, Subchamber Ensmble presents its debut album.

The Subchamber Ensmble is a collection of freelance musicians operating outside of the traditional orchestral context, founded by Malmö and NYC based film composer Nathan Larson and Malmö based cellist and composer Gerda Holmquist.

Their debut album is an entirely improvised performance, recorded at Gula Studion in Malmö, Sweden over a period of three hours on Monday November 5th, 2018. In the spirit of Brian Eno’s Oblique Strategies, small directives were given (Play in D…when you get uncomfortable, do not stop playing… avoid melodic resolution… etcetera). These instructions were interpreted by the players in whatever way they saw fit. The resulting recording was then mixed and edited with an eye towards early dub’s blatant and playful use of reverb and tape delays.

There is no goal or expected outcome, but one side-effect is the creation of a context that might allow classically trained musicians to work beyond set sheet music, to become more comfortable creating spontaneous sound. The Subchamber Ensmble could be read as a loving response to the conservatory/academic approach that so often limits a classical musician’s relationship to her instrument. Subchamber Ensmble aims to create music spontaneously, relying on the musicians’ ability to create unique sound based on impulse, rather than structured form.

The Ensmble has a rotating roster of players, but this recording features regular players Tove Wadenius (violin), Susette Johansson (guitar), Samuel Lundström (violin/viola), Olivia Rydqvist (bassoon), Lydia Holmlund (harp), Viktor Auregård (double bass), Gerda Holmquist (cello), Jonas Losciale (clarinet/bass clarinet), and Nathan Larson (tank drums).