Øyvind Torvund

In Constructing Jungle Books (2014) the orchestra is interpreted as a jungle, filled with sounds from nature and strange wild animals. Between the trees there is a composer composing and writing the music down on paper. In his dialogue with the musicians, Øyvind Torvund combines musical notation and oral instruction. His "notes" might also be field recordings of natural sounds that musicians are asked to imitate, develop or hand over. Thus, this music also draws on folk music traditions in which music is conveyed through listening and playing, and where the performers have great freedom. The piece is written for the German Splitter Orchester, a group of performers searching to combine the individual and the collective, interpretation and free improv. Constructing Jungle Books premiered at the Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin in March 2014. Øyvind Torvund holds a DAAD scholarship from the same city.