Noise Uprising: A Polystylistic Atlas

A new songcycle by Christopher Trapani for Zwerm, Sofia Jernberg & Sophia Burgos. 

The inspiration for Christopher Trapani’s new song cycle comes from Michael Denning’s book Noise Uprising, which chronicles the explosion of vernacular recordings that emerged with the advent of electronic recording techniques in the late 1920s in port cities around the globe. The historical 78 rpm records of this era are the not-so-silent witnesses of the birth of son, jazz, samba, rembetiko, fado, tango, etc. They reveal a kind of B-side of music history, a people’s history of music-making driven by the bustling marketplaces of colonial port cities. The song cycles Noise Uprising is a polystylistic atlas that unravels a subterranean, cross-cultural network far away from, and with a wider reach than, traditional concert halls.
Using Denning’s book as a starting point, Christopher Trapani “fills in the map” by composing a series of pieces for four guitarists and two singers, sometimes including live electronics. In studying these 78s as primary source documents, Trapani transcribes and transforms their musical gestures. These recordings are in turn woven into electronic collages, imagining alternative histories, fictive encounters and cross-pollinations between styles which in reality may never have intersected. With Noise Uprising Trapani uncovers hidden connections between geographically distant genres, but in doing so he always strives to create work that ultimately represents something more than a travelogue or a book of postcards. The short works he has composed for this cycle call into question notions of cultural appropriation and authenticity, challenge rather than romanticize notions of the exotic, and draw attention to the dangers of “overtourism” and the unreflective, superficial consumption of place.
The guitar, in all its possible variations, forms a common thread. But also the human voice plays a central role in Noise Uprising. This recording features the voices of Swedish-Ethiopian soprano Sofia Jernberg and Puerto Rican soprano Sophia Burgos.

22/10/2023 Transit Festival, Leuven (première) (BE)
05/11/2023 November Music, Den Bosch (NL)
24/02/2024 Wilde Westen, Kortrijk (BE)
01/11/2024 CD RELEASE on New World Records (US)
07/11/2024 De Bijloke Muziekcentrum (BE)
22/11/2024 HCMF, Huddersfield (UK)
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Concept & Development: Christopher Trapani & Zwerm
Composition: Christopher Trapani
Performers: Sofia Jernberg, Sophia Burgos & Zwerm (Kobe Van Cauwenberghe, Toon Callier, Johannes Westendorp, Christopher Trapani)
Sound: Antoine Delagoutte
Light: Lucas Van Haesbroeck
​In coproduction with DE SINGEL
Supported by Vlaamse Gemeenschap & Ernst von Siemens Musikstiftung