Please join us on Saturday, March 26th at 8pm for the world premiere of Eternally Frozen, a new composition for brass ensemble, percussion, and synthesizer by musician and artist-in-residence Andrea Belfi.

For Eternally Frozen, Belfi has adopted the medieval compositional technique of the canon: a pattern in which an initial melody is imitated at specified intervals, creating the impression of a never-ending melodic journey. Belfi’s experimental percussive passages alternate with brass sections and electronic components to create a body of work that unites anachronistic techniques with diverse musical styles like Dub and Pastorale.

Eternally Frozen was inspired by a discovery Belfi made while visiting the Museum of Jurassic Technology in Los Angeles. There, he encountered the story of the Deprong Mori, a mythological bat indigenous to South America that could allegedly fly through solid matter by using audio echolocation to bend atoms. In 1952, a Rockefeller University researcher reported having trapped one of these bats in a wall of solid lead. Eternally frozen in heavy metal, the creatures’s presence in the Museum exemplifies our fascination with fantasy, myths, and half-truths.

Informed by years of sonic exploration with percussion, drums, and electronics, Belfi composed this unique piece and will perform on drums, percussion and synthesizer, together with Robin Hayward on tuba, Henrik Munkeby Nørstebø on trombone, and Elena Margarita Kakailogu on french horn. The work draws on musical predecessors including Arthur Russell, Miles Davis, Moondog, William Basinski, and the Italian soundtrack traditions of Ennio Morricone and Egisto Macchi.

Funded by Musikfonds e.V. by means of the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media (BKM), as part of the NEUSTART KULTUR recovery programme.

Special thanks to the Museum of Jurassic Technology, Los Angeles.