The Great Learning Orchestra is a phenomenon that blows in the wind, but yet – at times – like love, settles temporarily – like a bird, resting on a rock – in the most unexpected environments. This happened the 22nd of May 2006, when the orchestra in its guise of the day (comprised of the people that showed up – it varies wildly!) gathered for the second Texas Chainsaw Massacre meet; the first actual rehearsal, since last weeks meet was more of a preliminary gathering of momentum, as we watched the movie and tried to listen to the sounds which we were supposed to work with, in our orchestra, in preparation for the appearance at The Underscore Symposium at Stockholm’s Culture House in June.

This time we had some problems finding a good rehearsal space. Then The Great Learning Orchestra has, during its history, benefited greatly from the generosity of SAMI (Swedish Artists and Musicians’ Interest Organization) at Döbelnsgatan 3, Stockholm, where many a rehearsal has taken place, way down in the studio, two stories into the rock base. This time all facilities were booked, though – but one member of the orchestra; Yann Le Nestour – invited everybody down to his boat, where he lives since one year. He hasn’t actually sailed the boat yet, but he will. He has some fixing up to do first. The boat – a big sucker – is called Svalbard, and used to travel the seas up around Spitsbergen. Stockholm is built on a number of islands, so here is plenty of water for those who want to live on ships.
Yann’s boat proved perfect for the purpose, and it isn’t untried. Yann also runs a club with music performances on board.

On the boat, in the saloon, we went through some sections of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, under the leadership of The Great Learning Orchestra’s artistic director Leif Jordansson and the man behind the Underscore Symposium, Peter Bryngelsson.

The sections practiced were one part freshly entitled Visiting the Cemetery, and another one, titled in the same manner as Searching for Kirk. It was quite interesting to see what could be done during the first rehearsal, especially since all of the attendants hadn’t even heard the movie soundtrack, but skilled as they are, artistically and musically, some kind of consensus about how the sounds should emerge to form a development of the musical ideas of the movie was reached, and at the end of the night Bryngelsson sounded pretty hopeful.

On one side of the saloon a gang of guys had placed themselves with wind instruments and an electric guitar, while, at the opposite wall, some dolls with kitchenware percussion were sitting. It became lively and noisy, and a little child had to be equipped with hearing protectors.

I had left the Polar Music proceedings with Led Zeppelin and the Russian demon conductor Valery Gergiev even before the King had handed out the prizes, because the Great Learning Orchestra rehearsing The Texas Chainsaw Massacre music aboard a boat from Spitsbergen is quite more important to me, but I had had time for a discussion with Swedish composer Karin Rehnqvist, and I also equipped my anatomical part of the Universe with enough liquor, so I was enjoying the subway ride through Stockholm more than usual.

The rehearsal aboard Yann Le Nestour’s M/S Svalbard was enlightening, as a gathering of these blessed people always is, and it was with a light heart I left the ship and walked towards the subway with pianist and composer Lisa Ullén, who is also a member of the duo ExSurge and the quartet ReSurge, as well as other constellations. I hopped a train the one-hour ride back to Shitville and hit the sack, to show up at my criminal investigation job the next morning.

This page shows a few pictures from GLO’s 2^nd Texas Chainsaw Massacre meet.

I hope I’m not starting to sound like a blogger! Enjoy!