this time is different

this time is different (5-6` / ∞ ?!`) for ensemble

was written for BIT20 Ensemble during four days in January and March as part of a workshop project held by BIT20, Borealis Festivalen and Helmut Oehring.

For this concert it was music in four sections plus one with electronic sound as a da capo, with text in between every section. The piece is today also a possibility for a lager piece including spoken and shown text about economical issues, human nature, human conditions etc. Does anyone dare?

Score and textfile at MIC

This work is a conceptual piece that seeks to emphasize one aspect of the ongoing, yet recurring financial collapse within the real- and financial economy. A type of crisis that through history has been repeated 250 times in 66 countries:

Each and every time people get to hear that this time everything is so much better, we are smarter and we have learned since last crisis. The community convinces itself that it is not going to get as bad as last time: «this time is different».

During the last years, we see again that it more or less as in the past: Because of immoral behavior with common values,  some people and institutions has become the new ‘needy’ who desperately need the state’s generous financial aid. At the same time everyone and everything is leveraged so that  time and  future itself is in debt. Thus neutralize precisely the time that could have given us new opportunities and change.

The musical material is to be played many times with a short break/pause (8 to 20 seconds) between each time. In each break the text «this time is different» is displayed before the material is played again. The text can be either projected onto a simple white canvas or a piece of white cardboard. Or one or more of the musicians are holding up a large white poster (minimum size A2) with the inscription «this time is different» in black letters. It is important that this musician is not acting in any way, but do this as a simple action.

The text is displayed only during breaks, in other words not before the piece starts and not after the last sequence is played. The displayed text must be readable for everyone in the audience.

The number of repetitions can either be determined in advance (pref. with variations in number of repetitions within the parts as indicated in A) or the material can be repeated to any in the audience makes an intervention.