Fylkingen - New Music and Intermedia Art is an artist-run venue and member based organisation committed to contemporary experimental performing arts. Over 300 artists from various disciplines use the space to develop and present new work. Today Fylkingen represents a wide field of artistic practices, including EAM (electro acoustic music), dance, performance art, video art, improvisation music, sound art, etc. It also produces and distributes recorded material through its own label Fylkingen Records since 1966. It is also from the same year that Fylkingen started to publish its own periodicals intermittently.

History

Fylkingen was established in 1933 in Stockholm, Sweden, then focusing on contemporary composers and a traditional repertoire. Over the years, the organization branched out into new art forms. Fylkingen was founded in 1933 as a Chamber Music Society of musicians and composers in order to highlight the new music of contemporary composers in combination with a traditional repertoire. Composer Ingemar Liljefors served as the organization's first Chairman from 1933-1946. The interest in new music eventually led to that Fylkingen in cooperation with the Swedish Radio presented the first concert of electroacoustic music in Sweden in 1952, as well as Fylkingen organising in 1963 the very first concerts of

computer music Computer music is the application of computing technology in music composition, to help human composers create new music or to have computers independently create music, such as with algorithmic composition programs. It includes the theory and ...

, or data machine music as it was then called. Fylkingen’s concerts of electronic music attracted the attention of composers worldwide for its high sound quality and unconventional presentation format, for example Promenade Concerts with electronic music, music simultaneously in several rooms with different acoustic conditions and landscape music in Stockholm parks. In the 1960s as the organisation radicalised more, more art forms took place at Fylkingen: performance art, dance, happenings, and text-sound compositions. At the time, many of Fylkingen’s concerts took place at

Moderna Museet Moderna Museet ("the Museum of Modern Art"), Stockholm, Sweden, is a state museum for modern and contemporary art located on the island of Skeppsholmen in central Stockholm, opened in 1958. In 2009, the museum opened a new branch in Malmö i ...

, with a detour to other premises in Stockholm and around Scandinavia. The programs from the 1960s and 1970s are filled with performances by international avant-gardes: John Cage,

David Tudor David Eugene Tudor (January 20, 1926 – August 13, 1996) was an American pianist and composer of experimental music. Life and career Tudor was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He studied piano with Irma Wolpe and composition with Stefan W ...

Iannis Xenakis Giannis Klearchou Xenakis (also spelled for professional purposes as Yannis or Iannis Xenakis; el, Γιάννης "Ιωάννης" Κλέαρχου Ξενάκης, ; 29 May 1922 – 4 February 2001) was a Romanian-born Greek-French avant-garde c ...

, Pierre Boulez,

Morton Subotnick Morton Subotnick (born April 14, 1933) is an American composer of electronic music, best known for his 1967 composition '' Silver Apples of the Moon'', the first electronic work commissioned by a record company, Nonesuch. He was one of the foun ...

Ravi Shankar Ravi Shankar (; born Robindro Shaunkor Chowdhury, sometimes spelled as Rabindra Shankar Chowdhury; 7 April 1920 – 11 December 2012) was an Indian sitarist and composer. A sitar virtuoso, he became the world's best-known export of North In ...

Terry Riley Terrence Mitchell "Terry" Riley (born June 24, 1935) is an American composer and performing musician best known as a pioneer of the minimalist school of composition. Influenced by jazz and Indian classical music, his music became notable for ...

Karlheinz Stockhausen Karlheinz Stockhausen (; 22 August 1928 – 5 December 2007) was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th-century classical music, 20th and early 21st-century ...

Nam June Paik Nam June Paik (; July 20, 1932 – January 29, 2006) was a Korean American artist. He worked with a variety of media and is considered to be the founder of video art. He is credited with the first use (1974) of the term "electronic super h ...

Henri Chopin Henri Chopin (18 June 1922 – 3 January 2008) was a French avant-garde poet and musician. Life Henri Chopin was born in Paris, 18 June 1922, one of three brothers, and the son of an accountant. Both his siblings died during the war. One was sh ...

, La Monte Young,

Pauline Oliveros Pauline Oliveros (May 30, 1932 – November 24, 2016) was an American composer, accordionist and a central figure in the development of post-war experimental and electronic music. She was a founding member of the San Francisco Tape Music Cente ...

Max Neuhaus Max Neuhaus (August 9, 1939 – February 3, 2009) was an American musician, composer and artist who was a noted interpreter of contemporary and experimental percussion music in the 1960s. He went on to create numerous permanent and short-term sou ...

Yvonne Rainer Yvonne Rainer (born November 24, 1934) is an American dancer, choreographer, and filmmaker, whose work in these disciplines is regarded as challenging and experimental.

Merce Cunningham Mercier Philip "Merce" Cunningham (April 16, 1919 – July 26, 2009) was an American dancer and choreographer who was at the forefront of American modern dance for more than 50 years. He frequently collaborated with artists of other discipl ...

, Antonin Artaud,

Robert Morris (artist) Robert Morris (February 9, 1931 – November 28, 2018) was an American sculptor, conceptual artist and writer. He was regarded as having been one of the most prominent theorists of Minimalism along with Donald Judd, but also made important c ...

, Carolee Schneeman,

Charlotte Moorman Madeline Charlotte Moorman (November 18, 1933 – November 8, 1991) was an American cellist, performance artist, and advocate for avant-garde music. Referred to as the "Jeanne d'Arc of new music", she was the founder of the Annual Avant Garde Fes ...

, side by side with major Swedish composers such as

Åke Hodell Åke Hodell (April 30, 1919 – July 29, 2000, Stockholm, Sweden) was a Swedish fighter pilot, poet, author, text-sound composer, and artist. Daughter Laila Hodell (author) He was the son of author Björn Hodell and brother of actor Ulla Hodell. ...

, Lars-Gunnar Bodin, Öyvind Fahlström, Sten Hanson, Folke Rabe and Catherine Christer Hennix. In 1971 Fylkingen opened its first own stage on Östgötagatan in Stockholm. In 1986 Fylkingen moved to its current premises in Münchenbryggeriet (the Munich Brewery), next door to the EMS (Elektronmusikstudion/Electronic Music Studio) which has been the center of the Swedish electroacoustic music and sound art since its start in 1964. Fylkingen was in the 1960s the driving force behind the foundation of EMS. The two organisations have continued their tightly linked collaboration since then. In connection with the move to Münchenbryggeriet in 1986, the organisation became bigger. It is also around this time Fylkingen started to include much of the improvisational music of Sweden as well as early video screenings. The visiting artists to the new stage at Münchenbryggeriet include among others,

François Bayle François Bayle (born 27 April 1932, in Toamasina, Madagascar) is a composer of Electronic Music, Musique concrète. He coined the term ''Acousmatic Music''. Career In the 1950s he studied with Olivier Messiaen, Pierre Schaeffer and Karlheinz Sto ...

, Brian Eno, Steina Vasulka,

Merzbow is a Japanese noise project started in 1979 by , best known for a style of harsh, confrontational noise. Since 1980, Akita has released over 400 recordings and has collaborated with various artists. The name Merzbow comes from the German dada ...

Chris Cutler Chris Cutler (born 4 January 1947) is an English percussionist, composer, lyricist and music theorist. Best known for his work with English avant-rock group Henry Cow, Cutler was also a member and drummer of other bands, including Art Bears, ...

Kaffe Matthews Kaffe Matthews is a British electronic composer and sound artist. She collaborated on the work ''Weightless Animals'', which won a BAFTA Scotland award. Biography Matthews is from Good Easter in Essex, England.Genesis P-Orridge,

Carsten Nicolai Carsten Nicolai (18 September 1965), also known as Alva Noto, is a German musician and visual artist. He is a member of the music groups Diamond Version with Olaf Bender (Byetone), Signal with Frank Bretschneider and Olaf Bender, Cyclo with Ry ...

Damo Suzuki , better known as Damo Suzuki (ダモ鈴木), is a Japanese musician who has been living in Germany since the early 1970s and is best known as the former lead singer of the krautrock group Can. Biography As a teenager, Suzuki spent the late 196 ...

Geoff Leigh Geoff Leigh (born 5 October 1945) is an English jazz and progressive rock musician, playing primarily soprano saxophone and flute. He was a member of the English avant-rock group Henry Cow and founded several bands himself, including Red Balu ...

, Chris Watson, Andre Stitt, Tara Transistory, Gudrun Gut, etc. Also significant to point out is the fact that in the 1980s many Swedish choreographers were based at Fylkingen: Efva Lilja, Per Jonsson, Susanne Valentin, Irene Hultman, Björn Elisson, Anne Külper, Margaretha Åsberg and Susanne Jaresand (then Håkansson) to name a few. The substantial development of contemporary dance over the past few decades could happen in Sweden thanks to Fylkingen’s open space. Many of the choreographers who started at Fylkingen later moved on to other venues when they became available: Modern Dance Theatre which established its guest stage on Skeppsholmen in 1986, the House of Dance which opened its scene in 1991, as well as the House of Cultures which also focused on dance for example. Choreographers and dancers have been active at Fylkingen during different periods of time, and today is yet another new generation of choreographers active in the organisation along with an older generation. A newly built-in dance floor, renovated in autumn 2015, makes Fylkingen an excellent venue for dancers, a commitment of Fylkingen to continue with its tradition to promote and support dance scenes in Sweden. Today Fylkingen presents over a hundred events a year and continues to play a significant role in contemporary music and art by being a stage, a platform and a place that provide space for artistic freedom necessary for experimental and radical artistic work. Fylkingen is unique by being the world's oldest artist-run scene of its kind.

Fylkingen Records

Fylkingen Records, also called Fyrec, has since 1966 produced a series of important records with emphasis on electro-acoustic music and new chamber music. Fylkingen Records also has a record store at Fylkingen. The shop sell discs from Fylkingen Records catalog, as well as many odd, exclusive editions and rarities from a variety of other record labels specialising in experimental music in various forms. Fyrec aims to present disc editions that take advantage of Fylkingen’s rich heritage of electronic and experimental art music, and also highlights interesting composers and sound artists from a conscious gender and norm-critical perspective.

Fylkingen Journals

Since the 1960s, Fylkingen has intermittently published periodicals (Fylkingen Bulletin/Fylkingen International Bulletin 1966-1968 and 1983, Hz-Fylkingens Bulletin 1992-93, and Hz Journal online 2000–present). Resting on "the foundation for Fylkingen to engage in 'Art & Technology' problematics” laid in 1965 by Knut Wiggen (then the chairperson), the journals often explore cutting-edge up-to-date issues of contemporary art and music in conjunction with technology and science. The artists and researchers whose articles are presented in these journals include John Cage (1966),

Pierre Schaeffer Pierre Henri Marie Schaeffer (English pronunciation: , ; 14 August 1910 – 19 August 1995) was a French composer, writer, broadcaster, engineer, musicologist, acoustician and founder of Groupe de Recherche de Musique Concrète (GRMC). His inno ...

(1967, 1968), Alvin Lucier (1967),

(1967),

John R. Pierce John Robinson Pierce (March 27, 1910 – April 2, 2002), was an American engineer and author. He did extensive work concerning radio communication, microwave technology, computer music, psychoacoustics, and science fiction. Additionally to his ...

(1967),

Kim Cascone Kim Cascone (December 21, 1955) is an Italian American composer of electronic music who is known for his releases in the ambient, drone, industrial and electro-acoustic genre on his own record label, Silent Records. Biography In 1989 Casco ...

(2003),

(2011), and

Roy Ascott Roy Ascott FRSA (born 26 October 1934) is a British artist, who works with cybernetics and telematics on an art he calls technoetic by focusing on the impact of digital and telecommunications networks on consciousness. Since the 1960s, Ascott ...

(2011), and Atau Tanaka (2019). Fylkingen’s online journal Hz-journal can be found at http://www.hz-journal.org. Fylkingen’s online archives of historical journals are found at http://www.hz-journal.org/historical

Books and Archives

In connection with Fylkingen’s 60th anniversary in 1993 Fylkingen published a book about the history of the society: "Sixty years of radical and experimental art 1933–1993.” The book contains, in addition to a detailed list of events, articles, essays and photographs that reflect on the society's long history. In autumn 2013, Fylkingen published a new book in connection with the 80th anniversary, "FYLKINGEN 80!". The new book picks up where the former left off and continues to portray the activities until 2012. Fylkingen also has an extensive archive of audio and video recordings, posters, articles, publications and programs, since the fall of 2012 kept in the Music and Arts Library in Stockholm.

External links

Fylkingen

EMS

Hz

{{Authority control Cultural organizations based in Sweden