PULS

Puls are performed by nine musicians, without a conductor.

all tones are pure and devoid of vibrato

attacks are clear and smooth

Puls was originally composed for a larger chamber orchestra but has developed into a more collective work where the number of musicians can be varied.

Damkapellet performs "PULS 2.0", written by Lo Kristenson. Koncertkirken Copenhagen, 8th March 2019. Video: hipermania

Puls develops slowly within a meditative atmosphere, all tonal transitions are gradually and there is really nothing in the form that makes the music feel time-bound or directed.

throughout this piece, musicians can use their voices as a way to vary the timbre of their instruments. 

sing the same tone as you play, let your voice coalesce with the sound of the strings. 

The idea from the beginning was to try to evoke a closer connection between all the musicians in the ensemble. By breaking up the score with box notation, I wanted to try to shake up the orchestra's more strict format into a slightly smaller and more intimate chamber music format. 

The piece starts with the whole ensemble playing in a common tempo "in a slow breath, together", to gradually reducing from full ensemble to a quartet with viola and double bass playing in "individual slow tempo, the aim is for a calm and meditative pulse ”.  The musicians are now shifting their focus towards themselves and their own tempo, but they also relate to each other in the transforming of a unison-disonant sound. And as the small quartet they suddenly are, they now need to turn inwards in the ensemble to their fellow musicians in order to be able to correct dynamics and intonation in an easier way.

The rest of the bigger ensemble now has a break for a few minutes, and they have to rely on the smaller quartet to show them when they can start playing again. This means that the ensemble in a way also becomes an audience for a short time - but an audience that understands the music and that has a focused listening ready to be a part of the music again. If the musicians who have a break can manage to maintain their focused listening and a concentrated presence as part of the music, then maybe it can help to blur the boundaries between musicians and audiences. Then maybe another room can open up where we are all just people participating together in a listening room.