Ensemble Resilience: “We believe this is the music of the future”

In Space Between, four composers experiment with the interaction between acoustic and electronic music. Ensemble Resilience will play these pieces on March 4 in Korzo. We talked to violinist Natálie Kulina and asked her about her fellow musicians from Ensemble Resilience, the composers behind Space Between and what the audience can expect.

Who are Ensemble Resilience? Could you introduce yourselves?
Ensemble Resilience is a collective of six musicians and composers on the edge between electronic and acoustic music. All of us individually come from different backgrounds and perspectives. It really is the lively exchange of ideas, together with common curiosity and excitement to explore new technologies and sounds, which makes our time making music together so special.
Paolo, Marco and Natalie live in the Netherlands, Gerardo and Pablo join us from the UK and Tomek from Poland. Our nationalities are even more spread out, so it is interesting to bring in the wide network of knowledge, tastes, gadgets and colleagues which we have as a group to a project – and see what can be created with it.

On 4 March you will present work by four composers. Why did you choose these composers?
Our projects often come from previous personal connections and professional collaborations. The composers in this concert all share our vision of music, but each brings something different to the mix. We think their music is enjoyable and together their pieces create a really vibrant showcase of what we most like about music of today. They also allow us to experiment and push ourselves as performers, which is always great.

The works are all connected to technology in their own way. What can we expect?
Well, for example, Mads Emil Dryer explores the most basic element of electronic music – the sine wave. In combination with acoustic instruments, we are searching for connections between the sources of sounds in his piece. Jasna Veličković has created a whole new instrument and sonic world around repurposed “electronic junk” for her piece, which we think is a really exciting and relevant premise. Boris Bezemer uses our original instrumental set up, and always manages to bring a wild sound range, with a lot of energy and intrigue. William Dougherty has put together a kind of ‘mirror’ of the ensemble, using our recorded voices from conversations and fragments of us playing instruments over Zoom during the pandemic. Expect to be challenged and surprised and hopefully well entertained, in four very different worlds, and keep on the lookout for the small technical gadgets and instruments which keep changing and transforming throughout.

What role do these modern technologies play in the repertoire of the ensemble?
An essential role. Our whole repertoire is created from scratch, because of the specific combination of acoustic and electronic instruments. And of course with each project we explore more and more of the endless possibilities this creates, which is a great building ground (one could say a playground) for new pieces and methods.

We would like to continue to build on the integration of acoustic and electronic instruments and technology, towards, let’s call it a ‘next-gen’ set up. We believe this is the music of the future. In addition to working with composers like we do now, we are also experimenting with creating our own music. We aim to get closer to the type of creative process and output you’d expect from a rock- or popular electronic music band, further erasing the divide between what we expect to see and hear from different genres of music. It also means being more flexible, researching formats of performance and collaborations with a wide variety of artforms, which we really look forward to.

Space Between by Ensemble Resilience is performed on March 4 at  4:30pm in Korzo. Buy tickets. After the concert there will be a Q &A at 5:45 pm in Club Korzo with musicians and composers.