collide is a composite composition form from four separate parts with different combinations of instrumentation and “leading” instrument:

I lectio brevis 
II ἀντί – Ἀνταῖος
III querschnitt
IV dark matter

However, they are not played in sequence but are fragmented into sections and distributed through the 21-minute duration of collide. 

The musical material and its internal development/non-development in the four different parts range from a dialectic (in a Hegelian sense) rereading of Bach’s Double from Partita no. 1 for violin, over detailed notated music with rapid and often extreme quick variations in expression to freely improvised music based on short instructions. 

The title collide, naturally, is descriptive of the collision between the four vastly different materials of the components. It’s a variegated weave but with shimmering threads and for me there is something poetical, something deeper, with these types of collisions, and maybe even “failures.” 

The names of the separate parts are all derived from the fragmentary novel Flights (Bieguni) by the Polish author Olga Tokarczuk, a novel that was a constant companion composing the piece. is short citation, which is also printed in the score, maybe sums it up: 

My set of symptoms revolved around my being drawn to all things spoiled, awed, defective, broken. I’m interested in whatever shape this may take, mistakes in the making, dead ends. What was supposed to develop but for some reason didn’t; or vice versa, what outstretched the design. Anything that deviates from the norm, that is too small or too big, overgrown or incomplete, monstrous or disgusting. Shapes that don’t heed symmetry, that grow exponentially, brim over, bud, or on the contrary, that scale back to the single unit. I’m not interested in the patterns so scrutinized by statistics that everyone celebrates with a familiar, satis ed smile on their faces. My weakness is for teratology and for freaks. 

(Translated by Jennifer Croft) 

collide was written for Kwartludium with support from the Swedish Arts Committee.