when the great fires were lit on the other side of the ocean

Microtonality, Occultism, and Electrical Force in Early Modern America

A speculative-fiction project composed by Weston Olencki & performed by TAK
with optional lecture-performance by Olencki

Weston Olencki’s when the great fires were lit on the other side of the ocean spins a fantastical musical portrait of the industrial revolution and the advent of electricity, engaging with the legacies of early scientific modernity and their relationships to experimental sound practices and archival preservation. The work posits an “almost-could-have-happened” scenario set in North America around the turn of the 20th century: when electricity, the very force that undergirds our current digitized reality, remained mysteriously nascent in a space of imagination and experimentation as a new unwieldy, yet magical phenomenon. 

The first half of the piece is structured as a theatrical academic lecture that blends fact and historical fiction, presented in character by the composer operating under the pseudonym, A. Gilbert Williamson. After a brief pause, TAK ensemble performs Olencki’s substantial chamber work, which was referenced and historicized during the lecture that preceded it. The music itself takes us on a journey of humming and jumping tesla coils, quotations of imagined Irish folk music, and radio static textures that evoke the electrical hum of a society experiencing the intersection of spirituality and industrialization, magic and the construction of a new reality. 

Fantastical philosophies and prophecies around electricity were central to the belief systems of early sound recording luminaries, eschatological prophecies of the Spiritualists, and complex political players crucial to the founding of our current age. This particular era and its manifold perspectives about this new “endless” source of power allowed individuals from a wide array of social strata to explore their visions and fears of the immanent modernity – a time of intense introspection on the precipice of a fundamentally changing world.

• For more information about the academic and historical components of when the great fires… please visit here •

Video from the world premiere performance at Roulette Intermedium, May 21, 2024

For the full score PDF, please visit this link

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:

Weston Olencki is a composer, musician, and audio engineer; originally from South Carolina; living and working in Berlin. They make work focused around questions of instrumental music and its contexts/constructs, various mediated practices of listening and improvisation, and the technological, material, and cultural histories of vernacular art-making. Their recent music deals with the non-linear relationships and unexpected resonances between experimental sound, geography, historicity, and (mostly American) musical traditions.

They have previously performed and presented work at the Borealis Festival, Donaueschinger Musiktage, Musica Nova (as a soloist with the Helsinki Philharmonic), Lampo, Ghent Jazz Festival, Black Mountain College, philharmonie luxembourg, Squeaky Wheel, Festival Musica, kalvfestivalen, the American Academy in Rome, Roulette Intermedium, Jalopy Theatre, Frequency Festival, Pioneer Works, and the OPTION series, & were awarded the Kranichsteiner Musikpreis from the 2016 Darmstadt Ferienkurse.

They have held guest residencies at the University of Huddersfield, Harvard, NYU, Columbia, Princeton, Stanford, Northwestern, and have been a visiting artist at CalArts (2018), Stoveworks (2023), and suddenlyLISTEN (2024). Various recording projects, both as a leader and side-person, have been released by HatHut, Sound American, Full Spectrum, New Amsterdam, Clean Feed, Longform Editions, Dinzu Artefacts, SUPERPANG, Tripticks Tapes, KAIROS, Lobby Art, Sound Holes, Astral Spirits, PAGANS, Out of Your Head, and more. Their latest recording/performance project, Old Time Music, was featured on Bandcamp Daily’s Best Experimental Music of 2022. They are an an active member of RAGE THORMBONES, Harmonic Space Orchestra, Ensemblekollektiv Berlin, APPARAT, Clone Decay (with Mary Halvorson & Kalia Vandever), The Hollows (with Nick Dunston & Etienne Nillesen), and perform regularly as a soloist and ensemble member on low brass instruments, winds, banjo, organs, and various electronics.

Regarded as “one of the most prominent ensembles in the United States practicing truly experimental music” (I Care If You Listen), TAK delivers energetic performances "that combine crystalline clarity with the disorienting turbulence of a sonic vortex” (The WIRE), and “impresses with the organicity of their sound, their dynamism and virtuosity” (New Sounds, WQXR). 

Dedicated to commissioning new works and direct collaboration with composers and other artists, TAK has premiered hundreds of works to date since its foundation in 2013. TAK is Laura Cocks, flute; Madison Greenstone, clarinet; Charlotte Mundy, voice; Marina Kifferstein, violin; Ellery Trafford, percussion. The group has toured internationally, with performances at the IntACT Festival (Thailand), Music Current Festival (Ireland), Cluster Festival (Canada), Harpa Concert Hall (Iceland), and the Delian Academy (Greece), as well as domestically across the continental U.S., in venues including Roulette Intermedium, David Geffen Hall, and the Library of Congress.

The quintet has released seven albums to critical acclaim; recent records have been described as “sublime art… a masterpiece,” (AnEarful), and “one of the most distinct and eclectic releases of the year” (I Care If You Listen). Their recorded output fosters a “deep sense of connection and communication” (Bandcamp Daily), and features collaborations with Mario Diaz de Leon, Taylor Brook, Erin Gee, Brandon López, Ann Cleare, Tyshawn Sorey, Seth Cluett, Natacha Diels, Scott L. Miller, David Bird, and Ashkan Behzadi. Their most recent release, Love, Crystal and Stone, brought together composer Ashkan Behzadi, scholar Saharnaz Samaienejad, painter Mehrdad Jafari, and design-house Sonnenzimmer to fuse poetry, visual art, original essays, and music into an experience-based hybrid publication. The ensemble’s 2019 album Oor launched their in-house media label, TAK editions, that aims to support recorded musical endeavors from across the experimental music communities, highlighting direct conversations with artists through the TAK editions Podcast. Recent TAK editions releases have included those of Ensemble Interactivo de La Habana, Ensemble Pamplemousse, Nina Dante + Bethany Younge, and several of TAK’s own recordings. 
Deeply committed to educational collaborations, TAK has conducted residencies at dozens of higher educational institutions including Harvard, Stanford, Columbia, Princeton, Cornell, University of Chicago, University of Southern California, Oberlin Conservatory, Wesleyan, New York University, and many others. The ensemble has also collaborated with the Walden School, the New York Philharmonic’s Very Young Composers Program, and Juilliard’s Music Advancement Program. TAK served as the Long-term Visiting Ensemble in Residence at University of Pennsylvania from 2022-23.