The Danish composer Simon Steen-Andersen’s audio-visual work Black Box Music is a surprising, energetic, noisy and yet profoundly entertaining deconstruction of traditional musical drama. The starting point is the classical setting of a conductor in front of an orchestra – but quickly the scenery explodes in musical and choreographic energy ad absurdum, bending the conductor’s role through puppet theatre, hand choreography and eventually a musical performance involving tuning forks, finger snaps, rubber bands and the construction of a musical machine within the black box. The DVD also includes Steen-Andersen’s signature work Run Time Error, filmed at the Royal Library in Copenhagen, as well as a short documentary and thus offers a fascinating meeting with one of Nordic Music’s most visionary voices today.

Since its conception in 2012, “Black Box Music” has been performed 15 times in 9 different countries. The work was nominated for the Nordic Council Music Prize 2014.

Simon Steen-Andersen (b.1976) is a Berlin-based composer, performer and installation artist, working in the field between instrumental music, electronics, video and performance within settings ranging from symphony orchestra and chamber music (with and without multimedia) to stagings, solo performances and installations. Simon Steen-Andersen received numerous prizes and grants - latest SWR Orchestra Prize (Donaueschinger Musiktage 2014), Carl Nielsen Prize (DK) and Kunstpreis Musik from Akademie der Künste in Berlin 2013, the International Rostrum of Composers, the DAAD Berliner Künstlerprogramm Residency 2010 and the Kranichsteiner Music Award 2008.

Works commissioned by ensembles, orchestras and festivals such as ensemble recherche, Neue Vokalsolisten Stuttgart, the SWR Orchestra, The Philharmonic Orchestra of Radio France, Ensemble Ascolta, The Danish National Chamber Orchestra, JACK Quartet, Oslo Sinfonietta, 2e2m, Donaueschinger Musiktage, Ultraschall, Wittener Tage für Neue Kammermusik and ECLAT. Furthermore worked with ensembles such as Klangforum Wien, Collegium Novum Zürich, ICTUS, Arditti, London Sinfonietta, Intercontemporain, asamisimasa and NADAR.