Score and live electronic part. Digital tuning machine.

Imaginary Associations is a composition for the Vietnamese instrument Dan Tranh and live electronics. It was commissioned by Nguyen Thanh Thuy and Mediartes in Växsjö.

A digital tuner was developed for aiding the tuning of the scordatura (https://www.henrikfrisk.com/synths/)

Imaginary Associations is the result of a over twenty year long collaboration with master Dan Tranh musician Nguyễn Thanh Thủy whom I met in Malmö for the first time in 2005. We have collaborated on a number of pieces, projects, improvisations and texts. To develop a shared understanding for each our practices has always been at the center. /The Six Tones/, name of the group as well as the title of my ensemble piece marked the beginning of this long relationship.

Although /Imaginary Associations/ is not a piece that has grown out of a close interaction between Thủy and myself, I still see it as a collaborative work, the main ingredient of which is the Scordatura. After initially poposing the tuning as a series of gradually detuned (from an equal temperament perspective) pentatonic scales starting from a low E gradually progressing through the entire instrument, Thủy made a suggestion that had a significant impact on the way the music turned out. Dividing the instrument in two regions where the first eight strings were tuned an octave lower. This gave the instrument a very particular sound with had a big impact on the way the piece was composed.