LEMUR

LEMUR is a four headed sonic organism based in Norway that transforms, blends and breaks the boundaries of their instruments and the art of quartet playing. Drawing on their combined vocabulary from experimental music, noise, contemporary music and jazz, the four soloist appear as a tightly knit improvising unit and a conceptually guided composition collective.

LEMUR was founded in 2006 and has performed across Europe and Asia with different formations and projects ranging from their regular quartet set, via collaborations with pianist John Tilbury, guitarist Stian Westerhus and larger projects, for example with the Icelandic Symphony Orchestra. Their musical activities include a series of commissions drawing on the canon of 20th century modernism, in which the ensemble creates new collaborative work from titles and concepts excavated from earlier music.

Other collaborators include Glasgow-based avant-disco hipsters AMOR, Zeitkratzer-leader and pianist Reinholdt Friedl, electro-acoustic pioneer Natasha Barrett and performance artist Kate Pendry.

Members:

Michael Francis Duch

He plays double bass. He is currently employed as Associate Professor at the Department of Music, NTNU, where he earlier held a post as Research Fellow on free improvisation and experimental music. He has been involved in more than 60 releases, including the critically acclaimed record Cornelius Cardew: Works 1960-70 with the Tilbury / Duch / Davies trio. He plays improvised and composed music both in solo format and with different ensembles and collaborates with Pauline Oliveros, Christian Wolff, Tony Conrad, Jennifer Walshe, to name a few. Michael Duch is a member of the Norwegian Academy of Young Scientists.

Lene Grenager

She is a composer and cellist. She is educated at the Norwegian Academy of Music and has written works for several international and Norwegian musicians and ensembles, spanning from solo to orchestral formats. She has participated as a musician, composer, producer and conductor on more than 30 releases and has played or performed at festivals like Ultima, Stockholm New Music, Huddersfield CMF, November Music, Donaueschinger Musiktage, FIMAV, Tectonics and Moldejazz. She works regularly with the improvisation ensembles SPUNK, Lemur, in duo with Sofia Jernberg and as a soloist, touring in Europe, Canada and the United States.

Hild Sofie Tafjord

She is a horn player, electronic musician, composer and pedagogue. She is educated at the Norwegian Music Academy, currently working as an ensemble musician and soloist in Lemur, SPUNK and Zeitkratzer. She has worked closely other artists and ensembles such as Trondheim Jazz Orchestra, Lotta Melin, Fred Frith, Fire Orchestra, Phantom Orchard ao, touring internationally since 1995. Tafjord has created music for dance, theatre, installations and performance, has contributed to around 60 records and has released two solo albums on picadisc and +3db. In 2017 she held the position as Artist in Residence at EMS in Stockholm.

Bjørnar Habbestad

He is a flutist, composer and sound artist. He is educated in music, art history and philosophy from Bergen, London and Amsterdam, working across formats and genres of art and contemporary music. As a Research Fellow at the Norwegian Academy of Music he has studied collaborative processes between musicians and composers. Currently he is active as an soloist and ensemble musician with engagements in Norway, Europe, Asia and the US. Recently, Habbestad was appointed Artistic director of nyMusikk and its festival OnlyConnect.

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Since forming in 2006 Lemur has performed in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, Germany, Belgium, Holland, France, Italy, Latvia, Taiwan, Macau, China, England and Scotland. Their albums on +3db records have been met with much critical acclaim, as is the case with their collaborations with Stian Westerhus, Paul Lytton, Julia Eckhardt, Mats Gustafsson, Ilan Volkov, Lotte Anker, Amit Sen, Robin Hayward, John Hegre, Caput Ensemble, Glasgow Improvisors Orchestra, Dickson Dee, Trondheim Sinfonietta, N Ensemble and Tom Løberg amongst others.

From 2011 to 2018 the group curated the concert series PB.1898 at Bomuldsfabriken Kunsthall in Arendal. In 2018, Lemur is Ensemble-in-Residence at the National  Museum of Art, Architecture and Design.