Channel
“A channel is a moving margin — not land, not sea — but the place between.” - John Stilgoe
“Just off the coast of central California lies an archipelago of eight islands known as the Channel Islands. These formations boast many species of flora and fauna that are endemic to the islands. Over millennia, the islands’ isolation produced evolutionary anomalies — dwarfism in some species, gigantism in others — shaped by strange, self-contained habitats.
In the fall of 2024, after living abroad for several years, I returned to California and visited the islands. Most striking was the haze — a marine fog that hung low across the landscape, muting edges, obscuring distance. The islands and their fauna seemed altered under it, harder to recognize. But this blurriness was also a softening, a kind of emergence.
In Channel, a string quartet plays with and against a sequence of lights. Light becomes an environment, responsive and unstable, that reframes the musical material in real time. It acts as an untrustworthy narrator to the quartet’s otherwise gentle collisions. Rather than clarify, the lighting distorts. It clouds. It casts doubt.
Ultimately, Channel is a love song. A love song to the islands, to fog, to foxes, to California.” - Andrew Harlan
Folkets hus
30/08
19.00-19.15
ABOUT THE ARTIST
ANDREW HARLAN
Andrew Harlan is a composer, bassist, and sound artist. His music exists at the intersections of contemporary chamber music, experimental club music, free improvisation, and dystopian sound design. His works for instruments and electronics often operate cinematically, seeking to immerse listeners in palpable sonic worlds.
His music has been presented across the USA and Europe by musicians and ensembles such as Yarn/Wire, Metropolis Ensemble, loadbang, and Wet Ink Ensemble, among others.
He has received numerous awards, including the loadbang Commissioning Competition, the Boston Conservatory Sinfonietta Composition Competition, the George Ladd Prix de Paris, and a grant from the Swedish Arts Council. From 2023–2024, he was supported by the J. William Fulbright Commission as a visiting composer at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (HAMU). He has also held residencies at the Cité Internationale des Arts, Zámek Niměřice, and the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts.
In 2023, he completed the IRCAM Cursus in composition and computer music. He holds a PhD in Composition from UC Berkeley’s Center for New Music and Audio Technologies.
