Zwerm XL plays Gigi Masin and ML Buch

Zwerm XL presents two new commissions by Gigi Masin and ML Buch. For this concert, the Belgian electric guitar quartet expands into a larger ensemble, bringing together additional musicians for performances of two works conceived especially for the occasion.

Recognised for her fluid, open-tuned guitar playing, characterised by warm, solid riffs, vocal-like slide techniques, and ambient processing, ML Buch has composed the new work Silver Grin for multiple guitarists. Her music is often described as onomatopoeic, with guitar lines resembling gusts of wind, lapping waves or flaring light. Extending her musical language of strong melodies and cinematic textures, the new commission sits, in her own words, “somewhere between the skeletal, the wonky, and the lush”.

Created for A Child of Sound, Gigi Masin’s new work Cross the Woods: Mori O Yokogiru draws on tales and fables centred on the symbolic act of crossing a forest, an image found across many cultures and represents the uncertain passage from childhood into life. Reflecting on the universality of play and children’s games, Masin recalls his own childhood in Venice, where Campo Santo Stefano became “an authentic playground filled with football matches, model cars, screams and smiles”. For Masin, this childhood world is inseparable from a sense of magic that helps us understand ourselves and teaches us to share our time and space with others.