Nicolay Apollyon

Nicolay Apollyon received his principal musical education in Norway, Germany and France from where he holds major degrees. His musical thinking is submitted to considerations about timbre and harmonic relations, including the dialog between computers and traditional instruments. This keeps him continuously questioning the fine line that separates music from special effects. The majority of his output is for Orchestra, Chamber ensembles and Solo instruments. Apollyon has a diverse background and his compositional technique may be confused with a post-modern style, but there are never quotes from earlier music to be found. He acknowledges these varied influences due to his studies in different parts of the world, like contrapuntal compositional craft in Germany, colour of harmony and orchestration in France and non-European aesthetics in the Far East.

In search of a genuine musical aesthetics, the loss of thematic identity is imperative to him, thus making colour and dynamics a priority, dealing more with non-tempered tuning systems and non-Western rhythms, although his music in not written to merely document a theorem or technical issue. His approach to electronic music stems from his desire to control the source of tone and to entirely design the parameters of sounds. This intellectual dichotomy gives him the opportunity to create music that exceeds instrumental possibilities including complex micro-tonality. His output also reflects "Gebrauchsmusik", which he himself refers to as "The Library of Anachronisms", and this part of his output is clearly affiliated with the German polyphonic traditions according to Hindemith, the baroque and renaissance composers. He is a member of IRCAM FORUM in Paris, and the application ‘Patchwork’ is a major tool in his computer assisted work. In the eighties, he built a digital multi-track studio to assist himself with DSP tasks (Digital Signal Processing) as well as providing him with postproduction facilities.

A major issue concerning Apollyon is rhythm. Music does not consist of notes alone, but more so of intensities and densities which create the dynamic order; the timbres and velocities creating the ‘phonetic order’; the accent, artis and thesis (including tempi) creating the ‘kinetic order’ and finally; time, subdivisions of time, measures and beats creating the quantitative order. The distance between two beats defines the birth of the rhythm whether the human mind perceives it or not. Fast beats transmute into granulation, slow beats erase the feeling of continuity. Both are the extremes of rhythm. When masses of rhythmic counterpoint are constructed and superimposed, it creates Space Counterpoint (Raum- Kontrapunkt). To complete his considerations about rhythm, he has devoted himself to studies of Gregorian Semiology and Palaeography. The flavour of this ancient mode of expression is heard in his music as well.

Apollyon's list of merits and biographical recognition is too extensive to be listed here. About distinctions and honours bestowed upon him, the following selection should be mentioned: DAAD German Academic Award; The Danish Ministry Award, The American Scandinavian Fellowship; Boursier Gouvernement Francais; Ingrid Langaard Legacy (CitŽ Internationale des Arts, Paris). In 1989 he was appointed an Honorary Doctor of Music in the USA. (Honoris Causa). He is a Fellow of World Literary Academy, Cambridge, England, and he is an Honorary Member of the Research Board of the American Biographical Institute.

Toccata, Trio und Passacaglia (1980), 3ème Sonata pour Grand Orgue (2004) and Toccata et Fugue (1980) were performed during the 2007 AFNOM festival in London.

Contact information

Nicolay Apollyon
5 rue Édouard Branly
95 120 Ermont
FRANCE
Tel: +33 1 30 72 18 60

Email: editionIACS@wanadoo.fr