Friction Quartet returns this January for the world premiere of the final two works from their Inaugural Commissioning Initiative. Candian composer Nicole Lizée's new work Juxtapossession employs her signature use of mixed media with a twist by adding vocal harmonies, amplified Quija Boards, video, and electronics to the traditional string quartet.
They will also premiere the new full-length string quartet by local composer Mario Godoy. His work, Attention Economy, examines life in the age of perpetual digital content consumption. Around the globe, every minute of every day, humans are staring at newsfeeds, "Are you still there?" messages, scrolling endlessly, with other people's tragedies becoming notifications that we swipe away. Scroll, swipe, double-tap, autoplay, read more, reply all. Repeat. It's the modern-day human experience.
Friction Quartet will also perform Lizée's new string quartet arrangement of her Criterion Collection. These etudes extrapolate scenes from iconic films by directors Tarantino, Kubrick, Lynch, Hitchcock, and more, reconfiguring them in glitchy loops. They have also programmed the revival of Lake by Eric Deluca, written for string quartet and video inspired by the composers' fieldwork in National Parks.