The 2022 Mizzou International Composers Festival is scheduled from July 25th – 30th in Columbia,Missouri. Once again, Alarm Will Sound will perform world premieres of works by the eight Resident Composers chosen for the MICF. Let’s take a look back at AWS recordings from the 2021 Festival.
Alarm Will Sound in concert at the Missouri Theater
This year you can hear AWS in-person when the MICF returns to live performances for the first time since 2019! AWS recently released a recording of “Sploopy,” a composition by 2021 MICF Resident Composer Celka Ojakangas.
According to Ojakangas, the composition references everything from The Creature from the Black Lagoon, to Messiaen, Zappa, Mingus, and more. Here’s what Ojakanga had to say about “Sploopy.”
Celka Ojakangas Photo Credit: Brian Winsauer
“Sploopy is inspired by The Creature from the Black Lagoon, Messiaen, Frank Zappa, Fausto Romitelli, Charles Mingus, and more. I wanted to create a swampy piece with campy horror film references. (“Sploopy” sounded like a sticky word, so it eventually stuck.) Knowing how well Alarm Will Sound can execute both avant garde and groovy pieces, my intention was to go from a lumbering, thick set of textures found in ’40s horror films (and elsewhere) to a fast-paced groove reminiscent of cartoons, jazz tunes, screwed-up wind band marches, and more!
“(This being said, the piece is supposed to be darkly ironic. The title intends the listener to not take it too seriously, sounding akin to the Boogie Man. (I can imagine people shouting “Beware the Sploopy Monster!”) But just like how a cheesy movie like Invasion of the Body Snatchers can keep me up at night (darned overactive imagination), the music itself should still enter, scream, and horrify, all within the parameters of that delightful horror movie campiness. (And it should be groovy, too.)”
Here’s a link to AWS performing the full work on Soundcloud:
And here’s a link to a video excerpt from the 2021 MICF performance of “Sloopy” by Alarm Will Sound.
This year you can hear AWS in-person when the MICF returns to free live performances for the first time since 2019! For those unable to attend in person, all concerts will stream live on:
Here’s a link to the complete 2022 MICF Schedule.