The Wasp Factory
by Ben Frost
Stephen Savage
Stephen Savage
This is one of the most interesting, unique, and emotionally compelling works of opera/musical theatre I've ever had the pleasure of hearing! It is sublime. Thank you, Ben and all the musicians involved for such an amazing performance. 🏆
Favorite track: The Bomb Circle.
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Record/Vinyl + Digital AlbumEstimated shipping: April 1st, 2017
Includes unlimited streaming of The Wasp Factory via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.ships out within 5 daysPurchasable with gift card€17.99 EUR or more
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Compact Disc (CD) + Digital AlbumIncludes unlimited streaming of The Wasp Factory via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.ships out within 2 daysPurchasable with gift card
€14.99 EUR or more
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Streaming + DownloadIncludes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.Purchasable with gift card
€9 EUR or more
1. |
The Wasp Factory
01:30
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2. |
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3. |
Death, No less
04:56
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4. |
Low Tide
00:27
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5. |
Blyth
05:09
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6. |
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7. |
High Tide
01:00
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8. |
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9. |
What Happened To Me
02:56
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10. |
You Don't Have To Sleep
03:47
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11. |
Stormfront
02:09
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12. |
The Bomb Circle
07:52
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13. |
Esmeralda
04:53
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14. |
Eric Is Getting Nearer
02:44
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15. |
Inferno
06:10
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about
In advance of new music from Ben Frost in 2017, Bedroom Community is excited to present the definitive recorded version of his 2013 opera and directorial stage debut, The Wasp Factory, based on the novel by the late Iain Banks.
Setting his unwitting characters against the backdrop of vast, implacable forces of nature—storm, sea, fire, and even their own madness— Frost reaches deep into his formidable arsenal to reveal an unexpected warmth, from the composer of electronic experiments like AURORA and Theory of Machines. The focus here is on the live sound of the Reykjavík Sinfonia, recorded in Abbey Road’s Studio II and, for the first time, the human voice. He sets David Pountney's Libretto to tuneful, even soulful vocal lines; an extraordinarily unreliable narrator describing scenes of extreme violence and horror in music of incongruous loveliness.
Rather than attempt to represent his protagonist onstage with a singing, acting boy, Frost infamously cast an ensemble of 3 women to give voice to his dissociated internal monologues: Lieselot De Wilde, Jördis Richter and Wildbirds & Peacedrums' own Mariam Wallentin. And just as he did with the highly detailed instrumental writing on his albums like AURORA or Sólaris (composed with Daníel Bjarnason), here Frost creates a seamless collaboration of performer and interpreter, each singer and each player fully and sensitively inhabiting their respective nuanced parts. And the recorded result defiantly stands apart from the realm of traditionally “classical recordings”, framing in the highest definition every moment of this studio performance - the confrontationally close breath of strings and vocalist alike push and pull against a range of digital shapes and textures.
The Wasp Factory is not too far from those albums in terms of continuity with Frost's thematic obsessions. Like Sólaris, which was inspired by another so-called "sci-fi" novelist's literary masterpiece, The Wasp Factory asks what it means to be a human being, and what happens when that human being gets lost in the labyrinth of his own psyche. And like AURORA, and By the Throat, it asks where—and whether—the boundary can be drawn separating the human animal from the terrible, destructive brutality of nature.
Setting his unwitting characters against the backdrop of vast, implacable forces of nature—storm, sea, fire, and even their own madness— Frost reaches deep into his formidable arsenal to reveal an unexpected warmth, from the composer of electronic experiments like AURORA and Theory of Machines. The focus here is on the live sound of the Reykjavík Sinfonia, recorded in Abbey Road’s Studio II and, for the first time, the human voice. He sets David Pountney's Libretto to tuneful, even soulful vocal lines; an extraordinarily unreliable narrator describing scenes of extreme violence and horror in music of incongruous loveliness.
Rather than attempt to represent his protagonist onstage with a singing, acting boy, Frost infamously cast an ensemble of 3 women to give voice to his dissociated internal monologues: Lieselot De Wilde, Jördis Richter and Wildbirds & Peacedrums' own Mariam Wallentin. And just as he did with the highly detailed instrumental writing on his albums like AURORA or Sólaris (composed with Daníel Bjarnason), here Frost creates a seamless collaboration of performer and interpreter, each singer and each player fully and sensitively inhabiting their respective nuanced parts. And the recorded result defiantly stands apart from the realm of traditionally “classical recordings”, framing in the highest definition every moment of this studio performance - the confrontationally close breath of strings and vocalist alike push and pull against a range of digital shapes and textures.
The Wasp Factory is not too far from those albums in terms of continuity with Frost's thematic obsessions. Like Sólaris, which was inspired by another so-called "sci-fi" novelist's literary masterpiece, The Wasp Factory asks what it means to be a human being, and what happens when that human being gets lost in the labyrinth of his own psyche. And like AURORA, and By the Throat, it asks where—and whether—the boundary can be drawn separating the human animal from the terrible, destructive brutality of nature.
credits
released December 9, 2016
THE WASP FACTORY
Music by Ben Frost
Libretto by David Pountney
Based on the original novel “The Wasp Factory” by Iain Banks
Commissioned by Art of our Times/Bregenz Festival
A co-production between HAU Hebbel am Ufer and Laura Berman_Next, Berlin, and The Royal Opera and Holland Festival in collaboration with Cork Midsummer Festival
With support from Capital Cultural Fund Berlin and Nordic Culture Point
Music produced by Ben Frost & Paul Corley
Written by Ben Frost
with Helgi Hrafn Jonsson, Mariam Wallentin, Lieselot De Wilde & Jördis Richter
Performed by Mariam Wallentin, Lieselot De Wilde & Jördis Richter
and
Reykjavík Sinfonía
Una Sveinbjarnardóttir, Gunnhildur Daðadóttir, Þórunn Ósk Marínósdóttir, Hrafnkell Orri Egilsson & Borgar Magnason
Solo Viola arrangements based on the work of Nadia Sirota
String arrangements by Daníel Bjarnason, Nico Muhly, Petter Ekman and Ben Frost
Conducted by Daníel Bjarnason
A boy’s voice by Julian Dudley, Max & Sam Houghton
Recorded at Abbey Road Studios, London and Greenhouse Studios, Reykjavík
by Daniel Rejmer, Valgeir Sigurðsson & Paul Evans
Programming, editing and sound design by Paul Corley, Paul Evans & Ben Frost
Mixed and Mastered by Valgeir Sigurðsson
THE WASP FACTORY
Music by Ben Frost
Libretto by David Pountney
Based on the original novel “The Wasp Factory” by Iain Banks
Commissioned by Art of our Times/Bregenz Festival
A co-production between HAU Hebbel am Ufer and Laura Berman_Next, Berlin, and The Royal Opera and Holland Festival in collaboration with Cork Midsummer Festival
With support from Capital Cultural Fund Berlin and Nordic Culture Point
Music produced by Ben Frost & Paul Corley
Written by Ben Frost
with Helgi Hrafn Jonsson, Mariam Wallentin, Lieselot De Wilde & Jördis Richter
Performed by Mariam Wallentin, Lieselot De Wilde & Jördis Richter
and
Reykjavík Sinfonía
Una Sveinbjarnardóttir, Gunnhildur Daðadóttir, Þórunn Ósk Marínósdóttir, Hrafnkell Orri Egilsson & Borgar Magnason
Solo Viola arrangements based on the work of Nadia Sirota
String arrangements by Daníel Bjarnason, Nico Muhly, Petter Ekman and Ben Frost
Conducted by Daníel Bjarnason
A boy’s voice by Julian Dudley, Max & Sam Houghton
Recorded at Abbey Road Studios, London and Greenhouse Studios, Reykjavík
by Daniel Rejmer, Valgeir Sigurðsson & Paul Evans
Programming, editing and sound design by Paul Corley, Paul Evans & Ben Frost
Mixed and Mastered by Valgeir Sigurðsson
license
all rights reserved
tags
about
Ben Frost
The music of Ben Frost is about contrast; influenced as much by Classical Minimalism as by Punk Rock and Metal, Frost's throbbing guitar-based textures emerge from nothing and slowly coalesce into huge, forbidding forms that often eschew conventional structures in favor of the inevitable unfoldings of vast mechanical systems. ... more
shows
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Apr 19Foligno, Italy
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Apr 19Krems an der Donau, Austria
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Apr 20Catania, Italy
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Apr 26Krems, Austria
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May 10Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
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May 16Hamburg, Germany
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May 17Warsaw, Poland
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May 19Kyiv (Kiev), Ukraine
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Jun 14Athens, Greece
discography
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Mar 2024 -
Nov 2023 -
May 2023 -
Mar 2023
contact / help
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