Reviews

Scenatet’s latest produktion, Memoriam, played to a full house every night when the piece was premiered in Musikhuset København in October 2022. The press also liked the poetic apocalyptical performance created in collaboration between Scenatet, Niels Rønsholdt, Tim Matiakis and Marie Kaae and signed off with some great reviews:

MEMORIAM is performing arts poetry that explodes genres and times
MEMORIAM is universes of abstraction that are not captured by fixed sentences
MEMORIAM is worlds of three-dimensional extension, soundscapes and curved textiles
MEMORIAM calls for bodily texts that transform wordlessness (Bastard Blog)

If the prominent rock band The Cure – the uncrowned champions of melancholy within their genre – had been an avant-garde ensemble, they might very well have sounded like this (Seismograf)

Memoriam mourns something that has been lost, and perhaps that is the language. Maybe it is the mind. (Politiken)

It is incredibly fine and poignant, but at the same time abstract and indefinable. It is simply something that needs to be experienced, not retold. (Den 4. væg)

As an experimental ensemble, Scenatet is interested in staging and exploring space in order to break away from conventional concert formats. They like to mix contrasting genres and styles, and emphasize the great range in new music. (Iscene)

August 25 2021, Scenatet premiered the work Backyard Opera by Bent Sørensen and Anna Berit Asp Christensen at  Copenhagen Opera Festival with hugh succes. The danish newspaper Information wrote:

Smuk operainstallation lukkede publikum ind til refleksioner om vores liv, og hvor tæt på hinanden, vi egentlig kan komme, et kontemplativt univers med sang og musik og en virkelighed tæt på virkeligheden [der] oplevedes som […] en smuk opera om ensomhed

Read the full review here

November 8, Scenatet showed the work Land (Stadt Fluss) by German composer Hannes Seidl and film director Daniel Kötter at Copenhagen Contemporary as a part of the program of Klang Festival 2020. The work was a 5-hour immersive performance on an indoor picnic field in the art exhibition center. Danish sound art media Seismograf brought an extensive review of the piece with an in-depth analysis of the experience. In conclusion, they praised it for creating new awareness about the artificiality of the world we live in:

Bosætter man sig i den lille landkommune, bliver man beriget med en ny form for vågenhed over for verden og tilværelsen. En vågenhed både over for den kunstige verden, vi befinder os i under forestillingen – og den kunstige verden, vi har skabt udenfor.

Read the full review here

The Danish art media Kunsten.nu brought a review of Interludium by Jeppe Ernst, especially noticing the extraordinary ressonance between the work and its location at Den Rå Hal in Godsbanen. The reviewer Anne Niemann Clement also highlights the intensity of her experience and in acknowledgement of Jeppe Ernst’s artistic mission with his work emphasizes that:

Jeppe Ernst er måske en af de mest hypede komponister på programmet. Og med god grund. De seneste år har han markeret sig ved at arbejde med det, man kan kalde kreativ reduktion. I flere tilfælde har han opereret med et dogme om at fjerne musikkens bærende søjle: nemlig lyden. På den måde har han skabt kompositioner, der retter sig mod andre sanser og mod det sociale rum, der opstår mellem værk og modtager, og publikum imellem. (…) På den måde efterlader han sit publikum med fundamentale spørgsmål til det, man ellers tog for givet, – at en koncert primært skal høres for eksempel.

Read the full review here

30 May – 2 June 2019, Scenatet presented the playful participatory, interactive piece from 1961 Symphony for 20 Rooms by the renowned Fluxus artist and composer, South Korean Nam June Paik (1932–2006). The performance took place as a living installatory exhibition at Den Frie Udstillingsbygning in Copenhagen. The exhibition was open 5 hours a day, and the audience was invited to experience the piece at their own pace. The Danish newspaper Politiken gave the piece a 5-heart review full of praise:

“Det er en udsøgt fornøjelse at defilere rundt i ‘Symphony for 20 Rooms’. Rum til fordybelse og medskabelse“. (“It is an exquisite pleasure to wander around in ‘Symphony for 20 Rooms’. A space for contemplation and co-creation.”) (Henrik Friis, Politiken, 02.06.19)

Photo: Nanna Navntoft