Prognostic Hymns

Prognostic Hymns | CHORALE_10

A multimedia concert confronting the absurdity of conspiracy, fear of decay, and attempts to augur the future.

program

Rob Durnin: Prognostic Hymns (2025)
for 2 performers and electronics, premiere

s ɰʃqʼʃkʼɻ kʼθɰsqʼʃ ʍʒ kʼsː ʛsːɕqʼβːɻ ɕʃʡ͜ʢʃɽ͡r̥ɬʡ͜ʢ skʼʃɰʡʼkʼ kʼsː ɧʃːɻ s ʡʼfʃɬkʼ ɧsː ʃʛʡ͜ʢʃʢkʼʢ fʟ̝̊kʼʢfʃqʼ θɕ ɧs ʢkʼsʟ̝̊ʡʼ θɕ ɧs ʍʒːkʼ , fɬqʼ ʃɬʼ ɧsːɰ ɧfʃ ɰskʼ ɕʒːʢkʼ kʼsɰ kʼsː qʼʃɻʃːɕ . ɧfʟ̝̊ʃɕsʕ , βːɻ ʃʡ͜ʢ ɬʼθkʼ fʡ͜ʢ ʃkʼ ʢʃːɰʡ͜ʢ , ɬʼfʟ̝̊ ɧfkʼ ɧʃʢ ʢʃɬθʡʼʢʃʢ ʃʡ͜ʢ ʕʃɕʃːɻqʼ kʼsː qʼʃː ʃɬkʼsʕʃkʼkʼ . - A medical-comedy where two goofball physicians attempt to heal a patient who exists outside of the scope of the work, and in whom they must first come to believe. However, all is not as it seems, now that this synopsis is revealed to be incorrect. [sic] - not to be said to be found under Melodic Synopses Pertaining to, Scrutinized and Subsequently Not Exuding From the Prognostic Hymnal. Or rather, not in the end. Instead passing euphemistically and ambulatory by, in repose, awake, or else taken in raptorial fashion.

Oktawia Pączkowska: do you need any experimental music? (2021)
for video and sound

Jessie Marino: and I’ll be there with you (2021)
for 4 performers and electronics

The text eliminates nearly all the vowels from Donald Trump's speech which directly preceded a mob attacking the Capital Building of the United States Government on January 6th 2021.
I've made a few of these pieces now - all of them attempts to further exaggerate the linguistic absurdity of the blatant lies and manipulation that spew from his gob.
The first piece came after the election of 2016.
Another after the State of the Union address in 2018.
and a third after the January 6th insurgency.
I don't want to write these pieces anymore.
alas.

Sofus Preisel: Suite for Imagined Sounds and Spaces (2025)
for large ensemble and powerpoint presentation, premiere

”Suite for Imagined Sounds and Spaces” was originally written for Ensemble Esbjerg as part of a workshop. Unfortunately, due to the piece's political lens, the ensemble had legitimate issues with performing the piece. It was not possible to find a solution both parties could agree on.

CHORALE_10 is a live sonic investigation into tinnitus tones by artist S McEvoy. Drawing on a personal archive of tinnitus experiences, the performance reconstructs each subjective tone in collaboration with participants, opening a space where individual perception converges with collective histories. Through a layered live performance of these tones, CHORALE_10 highlights how personal realities of hearing are shaped by wider forces and invites reflection on sound as both memory and marker of trauma. This performance forms part of CHORALE_x, an ongoing series presented in multichannel, ambisonic, and live formats at venues including Café OTO, The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Mayhem, and Centrale Fies.

K!ART
Hsiao-Tung Yuan [percussion, performance]
Joss Smith [clarinet, performance]
Ida Nørby [cello, performance]
Rob Durnin [composition, performance]
Antonios Akrivopoulos [flute]
Stephen Craigen [horn]
Þórhildur Magnúsdóttir [viola]
Sólrún Ylfa Ingimarsdóttir [violin]
Erika Tani [obo, english horn]
Hrafn Marinó Thorarensen [contrabassoon]
Rei Munakata [conducting]
Sofus Preisel [composition]
S McEvoy [guest performance]

The event is curated by Mikkel Schou.

Xenon, Huset-KBH
27th of May
20.00
50 kr entrance

Rob Durnin (b. 1997) is a composer, sound artist and performer from the UK. Living and working in Denmark, Rob's output spans from chamber music, to multidisciplinary works, installations, performance art and ambisonic compositions. In his practice, he often fixates on the characteristics and architectures of technologies, as well as the manner of our interactions with them. He also investigates the role of its intervention in the creative process and often works within the programming language LISP.

Oktawia Pączkowska (b. 1996) is a composer and sound artist based in Poland. She is the winner of multiple competitions, such as Diaphonia Edizioni 2017 Call for Scores and the 61st Tadeusz Baird Competition for Young Composers. Her work has been performed extensively internationally.

Jessie Marino is a Berlin-based composer, performer, and media artist. Her compositions and solo performances abstract ideas drawn from all stripes of popular culture and political discourse, girded by a definitively humanistic sensibility rife with equal doses of wit and pathos. Marino’s pieces score out sound, video, story, lighting, and staging, treating each of these elements as expandable musical materials. She transcends the conventional materials of composition to help audiences locate music in the most commonplace activities and relations.

Sofus Preisel (b. 1994), composer, pianist and performer. In my work, I try to reconcile the sensuous ambiguity of art with the unwavering unambiguity of activism. My work consists of sound that finds its aesthetic in creating change. In this endeavour, I often work conceptually.

I am a trained classical pianist from the Royal Academy of Music and a graduate in Musicology from the University of Copenhagen. Today I study classical composition at the Royal Academy of Music.

S McEvoy (b. 1987, IE/DK, they) is an artist who works with sound, video, sculpture, writing and performance. They interrogate categories such as sensation, affect and embodiment, and investigate how they intersect with and co-constitute ongoing processes of power relations. With a practice rooted in the intuitive exploration of sonic materiality and writing as artistic research, they trace sound manifested as an unfolding formation, at once a sensory field, cultural construction, artistic medium and process in its own right.

The concert is realised with support from Statens Kunstfond & Det Obelske Familiefond. KODA Kultur has supported the commission of Prognostic Hymns and the realisation of Suite for Imagined Sounds and Places.