Picture credit: Nazarin Montag

Welcome to this exciting concert in Gunnar Sævigs Sal at the Grieg Academy, Wedensday 2. October  at 18:00.

The composition is named after the arts movement ‘Solarpunk’ that produces works to help with imaging futures in which to thrive.  It has an intriguing subtitle: 'Music from the Erratocene for four pianos and citizen voices’.  Perrin explains: “We have left the stability of the Holocene which contained almost all of human history.  Scientists have termed our new era the Anthropocene, but many variations to this term exist. My own term, the Erratocene, is a reflection of our now erratic weather patterns. I involve audiences in my climate-engaged concerts and this new work is no exception; the composition is an invitation to contemplate the choices we have in how we respond to the new normal.”

The work is ambitious in that it's scored for 4 pianos.  Perrin explains; “We are in a global emergency where carbon emissions continue to rise.  If we stopped all fossil fuels today, so much heating is already locked in that the world will experience catastrophic climatic effects for years to come.  I have chosen 4 pianos because it’s difficult to stage, but not impossible in large venues who have the ability to programme works for multiple pianos.  It’s a provocation to venues: make way for works that engage in the real subject of our time - survival! We all need to stop thinking as if we’re still in the Holocene.  I think artists and scientists really need to shout louder, and the institutions should be helping.”

Solarpunk Symphony begins playfully; “I’m like a broken record about climate, repeating how Bach and everything else is at risk of ending up underwater, without a trace. So I start this work with Bach, playing with him Grieg-like because Bergen is the symphony’s first destination… then it breaks.”  It then journeys via the yaks of North East of India and to climate protests in Manhattan and completes with an upbeat movement that urges, above all,  a positive attitude.