Contact

Signs of Presence

2026

stage

Two of the musicians in profile at Barnens Scen, with bold white strokes of a live-drawn score projected large behind them.

Live graphic scores for People in Orbit's reinterpretation of Signs of Presence, a 1978 work by Leo Nilsson and Al Eklund.

Forty-five seconds from the performance: the quintet plays while a graphic score is drawn live across the projection behind them.

In February 2026, People in Orbit performed Signs of Presence at Barnens Scen in Malmö, a reinterpretation of the graphic score created by electronic pioneer Leo Nilsson and artist Al Eklund in 1978. The original sheets were photographed, cleaned up and redrawn in white on black for projection, with their expression markings set in type.

Adam Sass plays trumpet in blue light, a white line of the score curling across the wall behind him.
The drummer at his kit, sheet music on the stand, with a white stroke of the projected score above.
The first sheet of the 1978 score, cleaned up from the photographed original: ink marks, splashes and lines along three timed staves.

Then I turned the idea around. While the band interpreted the notations, I drew a new score out of what I heard, live on a tablet in a custom web app I built for it, and composed the projection in Resolume with custom FFGL shaders.

The same sheet redrawn in white on black for projection, with its expression markings set in type.
The double bass player seen from behind, the scroll of the bass against a wall of projected white marks.
The saxophonist in profile with the projected score falling across him, pale blue marks over his face and horn.
Curved white marks and dots of a live-drawn score hang above the musicians in the dark.

The performance became the pre-study for the Signs of Presence Tour, a Nordic tour of existing graphic scores that Adam Sass and I are planning for Stockholm, Helsinki, Reykjavík and Copenhagen in autumn 2027, playing scores from the 1960s to 1980s with a local musician in each city. We applied for project funding in September 2026. I also make the band's album artwork.