Following from their collaboration on the album and performance project Fish & Fowl (2011), Juliana Hodkinson and Niels Rønsholdt have created a new work together for Série Rose. While Fish & Fowl was assembled from recordings of the two composers' previous chamber works, X & X is composed from scratch by the two composers writing together, sharing and swapping tempi, rhythms, gestures, and inspirations, in a kind of unison compositional logic.

Despite the high level of exchange of material and ideas, the collaborative process nevertheless underlines the individuality within relations, however symbiotic they might be. This relation of being both a double and two singles is transplanted to the work's musicians. Their performance extends from the basic unplugged soprano-and-piano duo format, rebelling against its tradition of decorum and demure femininity in ways that bring their actions partly into resonance with one another, while also underlining the difference and distance between them.

X & X continues to sound out the question explored in Fish & Fowl of the fine line between evoked and explicit narratives and associations.

Premiered by Frauke Aulbert and Malgorzata Walentynowicz at Warsaw Autumn Festival, 2017
Curated by Monika Pasiecznik in 'Série Rose'