On 11 January Ensemble Nikel gave the Swiss premiere of Lisa Illean’s Tiding III, for four players and pre-recorded sounds, at Kunstraum Walcheturm, Zürich. The first of three performances in Switzerland in 2026, Tiding III will appear again in Bern at the PROZESS Kultur & Bar on 18 February and on 22 May at Basel’s Gare du Nord. The group gave the world premiere of Tiding III at IRCAM in October 2025 as part of the Festival d’Automne. It was commissioned by the Festival d'Automne à Paris and Ensemble NIKEL, with the support of Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation.
The 21-minute work comes third in a series of pieces partly inspired by Christiane Baumgartner’s 2013 wood cut Deep Water. Illean especially admires the way the “image evokes the perception of a liquid form through very precise means…The woodcut images approach abstraction – appearing endless – but bear the personal traces of an assiduous, intimate working method.” Alongside soprano saxophone, electric guitar, and piano, there is also a part for re-tuned prepared acoustic guitar, laid flat and played by a percussionist with a tone bar and mallet or brush.
The Tiding series explores elemental patterns. Tiding II (silentium), for saxophone, percussion, piano and electronics, was premiered in 2021 by Trio Accanto and the SWR Experimental Studio at the Donaueschinger Musiktage. It featured on arcing, stilling, bending, gathering, the celebrated 2024 portrait album from NMC, performed by David Zucchi and GBSR Duo, who gave the UK premiere of the work at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival.
Yaron Deutsch, Ensemble Nikel’s founder and artistic director, performs Illean’s Tiding for solo electric guitar on 15 March at the Interfinity Festival in Basel – the Swiss premiere of the work – and on 13 May in Parma at the Traiettorie Festival. Deutsch previously gave the US premiere of Tiding at the 2022 Time:Spans festival, recorded for subsequent release through Bandcamp; he has also performed the 7-minute work at the Wittener Tage für neue Kammermusik. Guitarist Sam Cave, who has championed Tiding in the United Kingdom, will perform the piece at Wigmore Hall on 13 March.