Murder Ballads Volume 2: The Positive Reinforcement Campaign, by Jessie Marino

For more information visit www.jessiemarino.com

*commissioned by Donaueschingen Musik Tage, with support from Ultima Festival NO and SPOR Festival DK

Sometimes, it is only possible to grapple with the news of great devastation when that news is encased in the softness of a song. 

This song cycle of murder ballads, “The Positive Reinforcement Campaign” weaves together improvised experimental soundscapes, traditional Sacred Harp hymns, and Appalachian folk ballads as we sing the tales of precious entities, be they human or environmental, which are subjected to the brutality of contempt, greed, jealousy, and utter disregard.  

These songs are the results of an intimate and direct collaboration between composer/performer Jessie Marino with four Norwegian musicians, the trio Pinquins (Jennifer Torrence, Sigrun Rogstad Gomnæs and Ane Marthe Sørlien Holen) and Inga Margrete Aas. Through improvisation, experimentation and group singing “The Positive Reinforcement Campaign” has banded together to reimagine and reconfigure the vessels of these traditional songs - populating them with their own sonic languages and reflecting on the horrific stories of our current time. 

Pinquins : Ane Marthe Sørlien Holen, voice, keyboards, electronics, Jennifer Torrence, voice, percussion, Sigrun Rogstad Gomnæs - voices, percussion

Inga Margarete Aas : voice, double bass, Jessie Marino : voice, fiddle, electronics

Emilia Dorr : Tennis Player