«Rousseau and Saussure both says writing is a tyranny, but where is the evil?», also known as «Sound descriptions bordering between the complex, impossible, and non-sensical», is a work for recitation and accordion. For this long monologue I developed a series of compositional tools structured on verbal meaning. The work operates in the borderland of the imaginable, by using different approaches to complex verbal structures, oxymorons, and new/nonsensical words.
«Rousseau and Saussure both say writing is a tyranny, but where is the evil?» is a long and completely bizarre piece for accordion and recitation that premiered at the UNM festival in Reykjavik in 2022. There I sat glued to my seat, with my jaw dropped and a mixture of horror and delight at a concert that was otherwise a bit too long. In later times, I’ve had the opportunity to study the score, but I can honestly say that it hasn’t made the work any more «understandable» in any traditional sense. For this is magic and mystique, and the power of magic and mystique lies in the fact that the spectator doesn’t quite understand what is happening, but precisely because of that, they become spellbound. Whether Anders himself understands what’s happening, I’m not sure, but frankly, it doesn’t matter.-Jakob Glans
From the world premiere in Dynjandi, Reykjavik, Iceland. Photo: Christina Raysitz
It’s a feeling that an incredible number of contemporary artists try to create, but very few actually manage to achieve. The best way I can describe this feeling is that it leaves you speechless. More specifically: something that is so beyond your comprehension that you can’t fully understand it. You are simply spellbound by artistic magic. You sit there gaping in intense focus because you have never experienced anything like it before.
-Jakob Glans
Video documentation: Patrik Ontkovic
andershannevold.com 