GAS 2012

New year, new ideas, new sounds…
During spring 2012 we will host the eighth edition of the GAS-Festival and by now we’ve become pretty damn good at doing what we do. We are capable, competent and experienced. And this is why it’s time to turn the tables and shake things up a bit.

Not one, but three festivals in 2012!
In 2012, rather than just doing one big chunk of a festival like we’ve done previous years, we have decided to host three smaller ones instead. The dates are: April 7th, May 11-13th and June 1-3rd. Inspired by the ideas from the last edition of the festival, we want this edition to be “easier to digest”. Not in terms of artistic output or quality of course, but in terms of scope. We want to create something that will be easier to grasp and to take in, a festival where the audience will be able to attend everything during the festival without getting exhausted from cultural overload, and at a reasonable price as well. To us it makes perfect sense to always try out new things and not rest too heavily on what’s already been done. We’d rather try (and perhaps fail) instead of just doing the same thing over and over. We really hope you’ll enjoy it.

Curating reality
One of the themes for 2012 is collaboration. We like music, we like surprises and we like the idea of new and makeshift musical constellations. Because of this we aim to curate acts as much as we can for this edition of the festival. Take a look at the program and you’ll see that this has yielded some new and quite unexpected constellations. There will be musical collaborations that you’ve never experienced before, and probably won’t ever again.

The new generation
We believe that it’s important that the GAS-Festival can act as a breeding ground for the next generation of musicians, composers and sound artists from all over Europe. Therefore we have decided to let a substantial part of the program for the May edition of the festival consist of students. First off are the events taking place in Nordstan on May 12th where students from Berlin, Birmingham, Bratislava, Cork, Izmir, Porto, Verona, Vienna, Vilnius and Gothenburg will talk about democracy from their own perspectives. A subsequent piano concert, consisting of 15 pianos, written and performed by students from Verona, Glasgow and Gothenburg, will take place in the middle of the shopping mall. On May13th we will host an Italian duo, a trio from Esbjerg in Denmark, a remix project emanation from the Punkt Festival in Kristiansand, Norway and finally The Lindblad Ensemble from Gothenburg, all consisting of students from all around Europe.

The MEETING concept reinvented
For the last two editions of the GAS-Festival, the MEETING concept has been an integral part. In 2010 we hosted a concert in a large fish market in Gothenburg and during 2011, the entire evening on May 7th consisted of a massive, thirteen musician strong ensemble concert. We now present the RELAY MEETING 2012. The idea is simple: Start out with a trio and over the course of the three festivals you let the trio evolve to a quartet and finally into a quintet. The musical content will rely on improvisation with additional passages of written music. Danish percussionist and composer Lisbeth Diers has been appointed Artistic Director for the RELAY MEETING 2012 and will also be performing on all three occasions as part of the initial trio.

Part of a bigger picture
Our ambition has always been to be more than just a festival. This year we’re part of networks including Verona, Glasgow, Kristiansand, Esbjerg, Berlin, Birmingham, Bratislava, Cork, Izmir, Porto, Vienna and Vilnius. There will be exchanges of students, EU funded composers projects, projects related to sounds in public spaces and community work. All of this is part of what we do and where we want to be. The ambition is to keep evolving and to try out new ideas, new sounds and new concepts. Who knows, next years GAS-Festival might not be hosted in Gothenburg at all, but in Verona. The world is gradually becoming smaller and smaller and we think it’s about time that we get out there for real.

But it’s still 2012 and we still have one hell of a festival ahead of us!

Best Regards

Staffan Mossenmark
Artistic Director

Financial Aid

Statens Musikverk
Västra Götalandsregionen
Göteborgs kommun
Statens Kulturråd

GAS 2012

GAS 2012

Financial Aid

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