As experimental music percussionists, Pinquins are often placed at the intersection of human expression and mechanical action – rhythmic, motoric, hitting, plucking, grinding – the musician become machine. From the other side of the mirror, Kjersti Alm Eriksen’s artworks create very human technology, machines full of frailty and failure, exploring the point at which technology seems to take on personality.

In this new work, commissioned for Borealis 2023, they meet to explore the relationships between humans and objects, between conscious actions and mechanical consequences. What happens in the gap between thought and action? What happens when the machines are as frail as the people playing them? On stage, inside a large wooden frame, the musicians interact with specially designed kinetic sculptures. The distant becomes close, the heavy becomes light, and movement becomes sound from a distance, and leaves a mark.

As one of Norway’s most dynamic new music ensembles, Pinquins play cutting edge music and work actively to find new modes of musical creation. In this project they take the role of both performer and composer in collaboration with visual artist Kjersti Alm Eriksen. The musical material for the piece has grown through workshops exploring how different constellations of physical objects create different, often unexpected sound worlds. These processes dictate further ideas and developments, with each action leaving a creative trace on what the final work will become.