2010; Concert performance and 3 installations by Maja S. K. Ratkje and Kathy Hinde
A commission from Faster Than Sound, Aldeburgh Music (UK). The piece(s) can be adopted to new locations. A concert version with installations onstage is optional. Music co-composed by Frode Haltli.
“Exclusive footage of Maja S. K. Ratkje and Kathy Hinde’s collaborative work, Birds and Traces. The composition was created during a week long residency at Aldeburgh Music as part of Faster Than Sound, a series of residencies set up to promote crossover between classical composers and artists working with electronic media. Inspired by the themes of bird migration, the season of Spring and climate change, Birds and Traces involved school children local to the Snape area reinterpreting Norwegian songs about birds and Spring along with making origami birds and mapping out migration routes.
Alongside the resulting performance, the artists created two installations which included research materials produced during their residency and a multimedia film sculpture.
The performance featured Norwegian accordionist Frode Haltli. Parallel Voices was curated by The Wire.”
“Following intermission we came to know what the origami birds were all about. These along with video projections and a great deal of electronics came together to give utterance to Maja S.K. Ratkje’s Birds and Traces II (2015), another world premiere. This was by far one of the most complex pieces involving a great deal of media as well as performers Kathy Hinde and accordionist Frode Haltli. In addition to electronics and voice the musicians used bird whistles, computer controlled slide whistles and animated sculpture along with the projected videos. This was more of the character of one of Allan Kaprow‘s “happenings” from the 1960s. Truly a maverick piece in a concert series that prides itself on such. The audience was clearly entertained.” (New Music Buff, from concert version performance at Other Minds 2015 in San Francisco.)
“High-tech vaudeville”. (SFGATE 2015)
Dancing Cranes by Kathy Hinde and Maja Ratkje from Kathy Hinde on Vimeo.