Kara-lis Coverdale / Keiji HainoEstreno absoluto

Changes in Air

Originally conceived as an installation for Skarven in Oslo – a floating sauna facing the fjord and heated by wood fire and solar radiation – Changes in Air later evolved into a five-part composition for electric organ, modular synthesis and piano before becoming the album released in 2025. Five materials – wood, water, sun, glass and metal – influence its musical arrangements. Kara-Lis Coverdale composed, performed and recorded the work in Montréal in 2019. The Biennale Musica 2026 marks its world premiere in concert form at Teatro alle Tese. Joined by Sarah Davachi on organ, the performance brings together two artists whose friendship and shared interest in timbre have fostered a close artistic dialogue.

It has become something like this

For more than fifty years, across what is called rock, jazz, contemporary music, traditional music, electronic music, and many other forms – and across the instruments involved – I have continued to use every instrument in my own way. This also includes bodily expression. Within that, I would be happy if the collapse of categories could bring forth the question of what “being like something” actually means, at the very point where we speak of “being like something”. If, through my music, people could become aware that the tendency to divide things into categories, and furthermore the idea that those categories become increasingly globalised, is without meaning, I would be very happy.