On 8 December, Asko|Schönberg will perform Islands, the latest work by composer Richard Ayres, will premiere. Together with artist duo Nest, Ayres creates ten imaginary islands, combining live music, electronics, visual art, photography, video and performance.
'One of today's most idiosyncratic and original composers. The only predictable thing about his premieres is that they are unpredictable'.
- The Times (2020) on Richard Ayres
Imaginary islands
Islands is up-and-coming Ayres: imaginative, humorous, eclectic, quirky and colourful.
Ayres, born in Cornwall on the Atlantic coast, spent nights as a child whizzing across the seven seas using his bed as a boat. A special book activated that childhood memory: Pocket atlas of remote islands by Germany's Judith Schalansky. Ayres created his non-existent islands as part of his thought experiment prompted in times of the Corona pandemic and climate crisis: 'Perhaps, I thought, the ancient art of dreaming or imagining might be the future of travel if our planet is to survive. An interesting thought-experiment.'
While composing Islands the composer was overtaken by uncertain reality along the way. His islands ran into absurdist, raw-realist, melancholic and parodic edges because of it in some cases.
Mix of art forms
At the invitation of BredaPhoto, artist duo Nest (Wiesje Peels and Trijntje Keijser, mother and daughter) developed their own image of his islands in close collaboration with Ayres. Nest's working method matches Ayres': both work from a visual world that often starts with drawn sketches. This drawing also becomes a live part of the performance. Nest's signature style, in which they use means such as photography, film and fine art to build on their own strong visual world, dovetails perfectly with Richard Ayres' work. The merging of the different art forms results in a sensual, planet-friendly world trip lasting just under an hour.
The press about Richard Ayres
Asko|Schönberg has previously premiered works by Richard Ayres. In 2018, for example, it featured The Garden on the programme, in which Ayres collaborated with visual artist Martha Colburn.
The press wrote:
An anarchic collage or an lsd trip? No, the music of the future. Asko|Schönberg turns it into a feast. - De Volkskrant
The Garden by composer Richard Ayres, which sounds as if Frank Zappa posthumously set 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy' to music. Dantesque hellscape. Superb concoctions of sound, Asko|Schönberg skillfully brought them to life. - NRC
Islands:
Asko|Schönberg
Richard Ayres composer
Artist duo Nest: Wiesje Peels and Trijntje Keijser artworks and staging
Jurjen Hempel conductor
commissioned by Asko|Schönberg
a collaboration with BredaPhoto
produced with the support of Fonds Podiumkunsten
Þ Islands - Asko Schoenberg (askoschoenberg.nl)
Thu 8 Dec '22, Amsterdam, Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ, 20:15 - premiere
Sat 1 Apr '23, Rotterdam, De Doelen, 20:15
English (UK) 
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