Maria W Horn & Mats Erlandsson (SE, 1989/1985)

Residency period: January-March 2025

matserlandsson.com / mariahorn.se

The ongoing collaboration between Stockholm-based Swedish artists Maria W Horn (b. 1989) and Mats Erlandsson (b. 1985) is an ever-changing, long-term artistic exchange which draws on their individual practices as composers, to form a shared room in which synthesized analog, acoustic and digital sound, field-recordings, and non-normative harmonic structures are woven together to form a unique independent expression. Their work takes the form of live electronic concert performances, electroacoustic concert pieces, recorded albums, and four-handed pipe organ performances augmented by live electronic processing. The pair share an interest in exploring historical psychological imprints imparted on spaces and objects by the means of field-recording and sustained synthesized sound.

Alongside their collaborative work, Maria W Horn and Mats Erlandsson both have individual musical careers and co-run the record label XKatedral together with former resident Kali Malone, Daniel M Karlsson, and Sara Fors.

At La Becque, Maria W Horn & Mats Erlandsson will seek to immerse themselves in a focused, uninterrupted environment that will allow them to deepen their musical practices and collaboration. During their three-month residency, they plan to concentrate on several interconnected areas. The first is the development of methodology for sustained tones and durational intonation studies by focusing on the process of embodying tuning and duration through daily vocal exercises, in combination with building long-durational generative sound environments. The second is the expansion of their ongoing musical research, The Spectral Organ, by improving site-specific composition techniques, derived from the idea that events and emotions create inherent memories in a construction, object, or instrument, and that these traces or ghosts are available to us if we are willing to listen. Finally, they plan to focus on their electronic/acoustic duo performance as a compositional tool, as well as gather new, site-specific field recorded material from the environment around La Becque.