Institutions of the Flesh

INSTITUTIONS OF THE FLESH

Alwynne Pritchard’s new work, Institutions of the Flesh, is a bold and immersive music-theatre work that explores the human body as a site of memory, ritual, and resistance. Created in collaboration with the Trondheim-based Alpaca Ensemble, the piece blends voice, cello, piano, and electronics in a raw and poetic meditation on love, labour, and devotion. Drawing on texts by William Blake, Heiner Müller and the composer. The work unfolds as a sonic and physical journey through the structures—both intimate and institutional—that shape our lives.

Developed over several years and premiered at Cornerteateret in Bergen, Institutions of the Flesh features performances by Else Bø (piano), Sigrid Elisabeth Stang (violin), Marianne Baudouin Lie (cello), and Pritchard herself as vocalist, with additional sound design by Thorolf Thuestad. The recording captures the intensity and vulnerability of the live performance, offering listeners a powerful and deeply human experience.

Alwynne Pritchard is a British composer and performer whose work spans music-theatre, text, and sound art. She is known for her physical and interdisciplinary approach to composition and performance. Alpaca Ensemble is a Norwegian group based in Trondheim, recognized for its genre-crossing collaborations and commitment to contemporary music. Thorolf Thuestad is a Bergen-based sound artist, composer, sound designer and kinetic sculptor working with stage arts, installations and contemporary music.

Institutions of the Flesh is a music-theatre performance that explores relationships between the human voice, our bodies and the social structures in which we live. It's about how each and every breath we take connects us to the institutions of love, labour, devotion and dissent that have shaped human history.

Imagine that in every song we sing, the first human utterance can be heard. Feel the sensation of muscles contracting, a gasp of air being expelled and imagine the thread that connects us right back to the first ever sounds we made – those primeval howls of pain, pleasure, anger, protestation and maybe even love. Then slowly, slowly, slowly these howls, yelps, screams and moans evolved into song.

The kinetic forces that made these songs – this music – happen, are as old as those that brought fish from the oceans. Older, perhaps. The forces that connect a mournful melody to the drawing of horsehair across the gut string of a 'cello are also present in the soft descent of rainfall, the violent eruption of volcanos and the fragile beating of a bird's wing. It is present in each and every angel we depict, in our love and fear of gods and demons and even drives our abuse of power and exploitation of the earth.

The recording session with violinist Sigrid Elisabeth Stang took place at her home in Trondheim on the 28th of May, 2024, shortly before her death. This album is dedicated to her.

— Notes: Alwynne Pritchard