Mark Reid Bulatović + Thorkell Nordal: animistic rituals

Free Event 

Thorkell Nordal electronics
Mark Reid Bulatović guitar / electronics 

Thorkell Nordal (Iceland, 1992)
animistic rituals (2024) 40’ UK Premiere 

What if an instrument could speak?  

animistic rituals, an ongoing collaboration between composer Thorkell Nordal and guitarist Mark Reid Bulatović, sets out to answer that question, dissolving the lines between performer and instrument through a series of profane “rituals”. 

Born from a devotion to bringing the inanimate to life, in concert this process manifests as an evolving repertoire of sonic gestures, which create impressions of speech – perhaps a sermon of vast and intimate impetus.  

Whilst not fully translatable into words, semantic patterns suggest that something is being expressed, and animistic rituals asks its audience to listen differently: how would an instrument speak if it could? What would it say? And just as importantly, how might it feel under the weight of our expectations, demands and touch? 

Produced by hcmf// supported by Music Finland, also supported by the Finnish Cultural Foundation 

Photo: © Mimmi Helkiö