Artist / Director Laine Rettmer
Composer John Aylward

This new operetta is about a surreal meeting between Leda (from the myth Leda and the Swan) and Kurt Cobain. As they interact in a fantastical liminal state, they come to terms with issues surrounding how cultural mythologies propagate negative stereotypes around sexual assault and normalize it.

White Rush (2018) 30′
Concept by Laine Rettmer
Book by Laine Rettmer and John Aylward
Score by John Aylward
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Premiere: AREA Gallery, Boston
David Guerra, Gallerist

Leda, Aliana de la Guardia
Kurt Cobain, Laine Rettmer
Live Electronics, Tyler Adamthwaite

Photography: Jonathan Dana

Angelus Novus is a work in nine through composed movements, oscillating between moments where the soprano sings with single instruments and with ensemble. The work is a monodrama that draws on the writings of DH Lawrence, Plato, Schopenhauer, C.G. Jung, Freud, Joseph Campbell and Nietzsche to explore the human condition from physical, spiritual and psychological aspects.

The work is framed at the beginning by a text by Walter Benjamin that describes Paul Klee’s work Angelus Novus, from which the piece takes its name. The final movement is based on an excerpt from an epic poem by Weldon Kees, A Distance from the Sea, which likens the psychological sensation of memory to the often confusing physical sensation of viewing the depth of the horizon and landforms between. The work is in itself a kind of poem or treatise on the human experience that became a flashpoint for me after experiencing Paul Klee’s work. The work is meant to be a raw exploration of life felt through the lenses of various cultural histories, represented in the pastiche of authors that inhabit the work’s landscape.

Libretto by Multiple Authors, adapt. Aylward.
Monodrama with Choreography and Video.
For Soprano, Flutes(s), Oboe, Clarinet(s),
Violin, Cello, Percussion.
Commissioned by Le Laboratoire Cambridge

With Choreography by Colin Gee, Costume by Alexandra Posen, and Video by Steven Taylor.

As part of our residency at Le Laboratoire Cambridge, we performed a modern take on a Silent Disco, using Earle Brown’s work December 1925 as a basis for an hourlong improvisation. Master DJ Ricardo Romaniero mixed the acoustic improvisation into headsets provided at the door. The audience interacted in the exhibition space in both an acoustic and public sense, feeling the shared space, and a digital and intimate sense through the mixed music played through headphones.

As part of our residency at Le Laboratoire, we hold occasional readings for emerging composers. This is a short video of how the experience of a reading can go. Often the pieces we workshop change considerably after composers have the opportunity to benefit from our ensembles’ expertise. After a few sessions, readings are recorded in a controlled and quiet environment so that the composers come away with workshopped pieces that have excellent recordings.

We worked extensively with Mark Andre when he was a guest composer at our summer music festival in France. There, we workshopped pieces with him and learned first-hand about his style and aesthetics, which are fascinatingly informed by a rich sense of religious mysticism. Upon returning to the US, we created a series of interpretations of his works with Jean-Philippe Wurtz, our Principle Conductor and the Music Director at Etchings.

As part of our work commissioning new works, we asked Brandeis professor Martin Boykan to write a new work for us. The work is short and quite powerful in its form, economy of means and expressiveness. We performed the work at the Dimenna Center in New York, The Boston Athenaeum and then recorded the work at the American Academy. We hope to release the recording soon!

Partnering with the Rose Kennedy Greenway, we performed an outdoor rendition of Stockhausen's Tierkreis with choreography by our Creative Collaborator Colin Gee. The urban happening attracted passersby as well as all invited to the shows.