String Dialogues is a collection of six duo recordings initiated by the renowned musician, composer, and improviser Peter Söderberg. Here, he investigates different tuning systems and the idea of hybrid instruments. Within various instrumental settings and informed by his musical co-partners and fellow improvisors Katt Hernandez, Stina Hellberg Agback, Mats Persson, Sten Sandell, My Hellgren and Vilhelm Bromander, he has sculpted an album highlighting complex timbres and intimate interplay. The album is released on CD and digitally and features an extensive booklet with Söderberg's reflections on the music.

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Comments on the works
by Peter Söderberg

[1] Close – for Violin & Guitar
In this duo, the guitar employs a tuning that uses the same interval between all the strings; a fourth lowered by a sixth of a tone. Also the violin uses an unconventional tuning, with all the strings sounding a minor third lower than normal, thus being midway down to the tuning of a viola. The guitar part is based on what appears to be familiar pentatonic patterns, except for the slightly modified pitches. The violin part is basically left without any restrictions, and the flexible intonation of the instrument allows for adjusting to the microintervals produced on the guitar, but also for choosing a more independent approach to the framework. In this way, the instruments have a complementary function to each other, in the attempt to create a fusion of the two. But even if these instruments have fundamentally different characteristics, in the second part they blend in with each other with the aid of an e-bow on the guitar strings.

[2] Symbiosis – for Harp & Theorbo
Although the harp and theorbo have a common history as continuo instruments in the baroque period, they are rarely confronted with each other in new music. Here, the instruments approach each other through the diatonic tuning of the strings, a basic feature of the harp (as a whole) and the theorbo (on the low strings). Furthermore, both instruments employ the same playing technique, producing natural harmonics of fifths and octaves, in addition to open strings. This results in the desired fusion of the instruments, to the extent that it can make the listener uncertain about the source of the sound. However, the shared diatonic material – all naturals except for one sharp and one flat note – is slightly distorted by individual concert pitches, with the theorbo sounding a sixth of a tone below the harp. The resulting small deviations in pitch will repeatedly produce slow beating between neighboring tones, which becomes an essential component of this music.

[3] Distant – for Clavichord & Renaissance Lute
Here, two instruments with a similar background in the renaissance period are brought together. The historical connection is reinforced by use of the meantone temperament, which was dominant in the 16th century. This tuning system is based on pure major thirds, being considerably narrower than the same interval in the equal-tempered system mainly used today. The music explores the polyphonic possibilities of both instruments, where the number of voices is constantly varied, and short melodic fragments are repeated. Without using any direct reference to renaissance music in this performance, the meantone temperament inevitably reflects the tonality of the distant historical period when these instruments flourished. This duo is also notable for its restrained dynamics. Whereas the lute will often have a hard time making itself heard in the company of other instruments, here it needs to adjust to the even softer sound of the clavichord.

[4] Apart – for Piano & Guitar
As a rule, the piano and the guitar share the same notes of the chromatic scale. Here, they are separated by tuning to different concert pitches, a quarter tone apart. In this way two individual tonal systems are combined, where nothing is shared. At the same time, the instruments make use of similar phrasing and playing techniques – playing with one hand alone, for example – which brings them together. The split harmonic materials are initially treated as incompatible and, during the first part of the music, the piano and guitar are completely separated and only heard in extended solo passages. In this way, the quarter tone difference in pitch is largely obscured. Gradually, the instruments begin to overlap and eventually to perform as a proper duo. Only then, perhaps, does it become apparent that the instruments have different tone systems. The initial twelve tones per octave – in one instrument at a time – are expanded to a potential of twenty-four.

[5] Continuum – for Cello & Oud
The combination of cello and oud can be seen as a meeting between different traditions, both historically and geographically. The tonality, or rather the lack of one, is based on the flexible intonation enabled on both instruments, manifested above all by an extended use of glissandi. Whereas the other duos use a limited source of harmonic material, here the instruments reside within a continuum of boundless frequencies. A certain tonal centre is nonetheless suggested by the consistent tuning of the instruments; the rising fifths on the open cello strings are paralleled by descending fourths on the oud with the same tones (C-G-D-A). The pizzicato playing on the cello creates a close relation with the Arabic lute, while the sections played with the bow expose a widened sound spectrum. A keyword here is instability and not until the last minute, does the music finally seem to reach an equilibrium.

[6] Sustain – for Contrabass & Theorbo
Both components of this duo are normally identified as typically low instruments. In this case, however, they stay in their upper regions, using the overtone series of the open strings. The low strings of the theorbo are activated by a hand-held fan, continuously scanning different touch points along the strings. In this way, the instrument is given a new identity with virtually no connection to traditional playing. The contrabass too is played in an unorthodox way, dominated by very high bowed harmonics that tend to be unstable in pitch. In contrast to the other duos, the natural decay of the vibrating string is here effectively avoided. Instead, a continuous modulation of the sound is produced, including a high degree of noise that is not present in the other duos. In this music, the listener will once again have a hard time knowing which instrument the sound is being produced on.