year of production  2003

dedication Terje Thiwång

duration 8’38’’

first performance
November 7th 2003

LINK-festivalen

Konstnärshuset, Stockholm

Terje Thiwång, alto flute

publisher  

SVENSK MUSIK

work comments

Yellow skies was composed in close collaboration with the flutist Terje Thiwång, to whom it is also dedicated.

The initiating process was from the start a solo piece for flute. But the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington on the September 11th 2001 left an enormous impact and dreamt in a naive sense that you saw ”a wounded place with yellow skies and red seas”. The tape-part is based on recorded samples from the alto flute and normal flute. The work is divided in six parts and the harmony consists of six notes in two different modes.

Yellow skies was nominated as one of the Swedish representatives at the International Rostrum of Electroacoustic Music (IREM) in Rome 2004.

About Yellow skies for alto flute, live-electronics and 2-channel tape

Ung Nordisk Musik 2004, Crescendo, Norrköping

Sara Hammarström, alto flute

[…] ”Even more sentiment and substance was Benjamin Staerns electroacoustic piece Yellow Skies, inspired of impressions after the attacks on the September 11th. The alto flutes uneasy melodic parts wandered seekingly between glasslike notes that roamed muted in choked eruptions from echoing sediment and leave behind footprints to the listener.” […]

Michael Ericsson, Norrköpings Tidningar August 19th 2004