The Present State of Music: An interactive Radio Experience

by Anders Flodin

To Martin, Emelie and Barry, intrepid travelers in their own way.

On April 2, 2026, FMT began a three-day road trip through Europe from Sweden to Italy‬ to commemorate the 300th anniversary of the birth of the English observer, travel writer and‬ composer Charles Burney (7 April 1726 – 12 April 1814).‬ Burney had a different route during his expeditions, but the places crossed are essentially the same: Berlin, Potsdam, Munich, Verona, Bologna.

Contemporary composers and artists were invited to participate inspired by his rich observations‬ and travel writings‬ and the project came out with the title The State of Music: An Interactive‬ Radio Experience‬‭. Participants were asked to submit a contribution from YouTube or Soundcloud and to pinpoint where they wanted to place this on the journey.In the project, we explored how Burney’s 18th-century quest to document the music of‬ Europe can be reimagined in today’s interconnected world – not through manuscripts, but‬ ‭through live, participatory radio.‬ 

[🔉1] Introduction: Helsingborg/Sweden

The journey began in Helsingborg during the late hours of a gray spring afternoon. Situated along the Öresund Strait, Helsingborg has historically functioned as an important maritime and commercial gateway between Scandinavia and continental Europe. Leaving the city by car before sunset, the route south immediately conveyed the geographic transition from the Nordic world toward Central Europe.

[🔉2] Emelie Sjöström: The Raving Ones (2020) Trelleborg/Sweden

In Trelleborg, the vehicle boarded the ferry toward Rostock. The crossing of the Baltic Sea represented more than a practical transport link; it marked an important cultural and historical transition between Northern Europe and the German-speaking regions of continental Europe. 

The second day of travel began before dawn leaving the ferry with Fruitful whisper in the speakers. 

[🔉3] Klara Dujmović: Fruitful whisper (2026) Rostock/Germany

“The composition is built from sounds recorded in the apartment and on the balcony where I live, in the city center of Rijeka, Croatia, precisely at the address Pomerio 5. Pomerio, from the Latin pomerium, refers to a strip of consecrated, uncultivated land along the city walls. There – or here – by the window where, in recent days, the strong “bura” wind has been knocking, I planted a pear tree in response to the idea that the apple never falls far from the tree.” 

Rostock itself, once a prominent member of the Hanseatic League, retains visible traces of its medieval mercantile heritage through its Brick Gothic architecture, harbor structures, and urban layout. Even during a brief stop, the city conveyed the maritime identity that shaped much of northern German economic history.

Continuing southward by automobile through Germany, the landscape gradually shifted from coastal plains to more densely urbanized regions. The German autobahn system facilitated rapid movement across large distances, emphasizing Germany’s central geographic role within Europe. As the journey progressed toward Berlin, the surrounding environment became increasingly metropolitan and industrialized.

[🔉4] Sanket Mahapatra: Mumtaz (2014) Potsdam/Germany

Berlin presented a striking contrast to the relative calm of Scandinavia and northern Germany. The city embodies layers of European political and cultural history simultaneously visible within its urban landscape. 

[🔉5] Pavel Matela/Ingetrapt: The Duck Factory (2025) Leupoldsgrün/Germany

“I would like to place the recording on the map in the small village of Leupoldsgrün in Germany, where your path meets the straight line connecting the current homes of me and Ingetrapt, our music duo The Situacion.”

Continuing south through Bavaria toward the Alps. Over several hours, the topography changed dramatically. Flat agricultural regions gave way to hills and eventually mountainous terrain, illustrating the geographical diversity of Central Europe. 

[🔉6] Makin Fung Bing Fai: Fading Forest (2026) Eshelbach an der Ilm/Germany

The increasing visibility of alpine landscapes also signaled a broader cultural transition toward the southern regions of the continent.

[🔉7] Barry Wan/Marissa Bili: Chanting to the Moon (2026) München/Germany

Arrival in Innsbruck introduced a distinctly alpine urban environment. Located within the Inn Valley and surrounded by steep mountain ranges, Innsbruck historically developed as an important transit point connecting northern and southern Europe through the Alps. The city’s geography has long influenced trade, military movement, and cultural exchange between Germanic and Italian regions.

[🔉8] Evgeny Irshai: String Quartet no. 8 “Appointment in Samara” (2025) Innsbruck/Austria

The overnight stop in Innsbruck at Hwest Hotel emphasized the relationship between urban settlement and mountainous terrain. Unlike the expansive metropolitan structure of Berlin, Innsbruck appeared compact and geographically constrained, shaped directly by the surrounding landscape. Snow-covered peaks remained visible above the city despite the arrival of spring in the valleys below. We started early the next morning and filled up the car with fuel at OMV Tankstelle near the hotel. Crossing the Brenner Pass into Italy represented one of the most significant transitions of the journey. 

[🔉9] Man Tin: Landscape Traveling Machine (2025) Bolzano/Italy

Historically one of Europe’s most important alpine crossings, the Brenner corridor has connected northern and southern Europe since antiquity. The descent into Italy brought immediate environmental and cultural changes: warmer light, Mediterranean vegetation, vineyards, and more densely clustered hilltop settlements.

[🔉10] Martin Flašar: White (2022) Rovereto, Borgo Sacco/Italy

“The title of this organ composition refers to emptiness, the absence of deliberate content. Music is a sounding form of movement, as defined by Eduard Hanslick in the mid-19th century. In my opinion, its true content is only completed on the basis of the listener’s individual life experiences. The composition White works with very reduced material, which is in apparent contrast to the incredibly rich instrument for which it is intended. I believe that it is precisely the simplicity and restraint of the material that can create true grandeur and magnificence in music.

I would like to dedicate the performance of this composition to the composer Jan Novák (1921-1984), who loved ancient culture, he played and composed for the organ himself, and lived with his family in exile in Rovereto, Italy, in the 1970s. After his death, he was buried in the local cemetery of Borgo Sacco. Today, his remains finally found their place in his hometown of Brno.

This is a live recording of the piece White performed by Ilona Růčková at the Postfest Festival in St. Maurice Church in Kroměříž (CZ) in July 2024. The composition is dedicated to K. Dubská. […]”

[🔉11] Emelie Sjöström: Hormones (2025) Iseo/Italy

[🔉12] Mauro Cardi: Il Diario di Eva (2019) Verona/Italy

By afternoon the route reached Bologna, one of Italy’s most historically significant urban centers. Bologna is renowned not only for its medieval architecture and extensive portico systems but also for its intellectual heritage as home to the oldest continuously operating university in Europe. 

[🔉13] Olav Anton Thommessen: Corellimaskin (2002) Fusignano/Italy

After a short stop, the journey continued eastward into the Apennine regions of central Italy. As highways narrowed and traffic diminished, the landscape became increasingly rural and mountainous. 

[🔉14] Mauro Cardi: La Follia per viola (con viola d’amore) e orchestra d’archi (2017) Ancona/Italy 

Villages appeared isolated along hillsides, reflecting settlement patterns shaped by geography, agriculture, and historical regionalism.

[🔉15] Anders Flodin: Sud – tre brevi frammenti (2025) Fossacesia/Italy

The final destination, Bomba, offered a marked contrast to the major urban centers encountered earlier in the trip. Located within the Abruzzo region, Bomba exemplifies the smaller historic towns characteristic of central and southern Italy. Surrounded by mountains, forests, and Lake Bomba.

Arrival in Bomba after three days of continuous overland travel created a powerful awareness of Europe’s regional diversity. The journey connected Scandinavian coastal cities, German industrial and political centers, alpine transit corridors, and Mediterranean rural landscapes within a relatively short period of time. Yet despite the efficiency of modern infrastructure, each region retained distinct historical, linguistic, architectural, and cultural identities.

Burney’s journey progressed at a slower pace, allowing him to encounter a considerably greater number of people during his travels. However, undertaking a similar journey accompanied by the works of living composers constituted a distinct and valuable experience. Passing through Fusignano, the birthplace of Arcangelo Corelli, while listening to Olav Anton Thommessen’s Corellimaskin, felt akin to witnessing a musical homage from one composer to another. The intertextual references, quotations, and stylistic allusions are readily discernible, underscoring the work’s dialogue with Corelli’s musical legacy.

The route from Helsingborg to Bomba therefore represented more than a physical movement across distance. It illustrated the layered complexity of Europe itself: a continent unified through infrastructure and political cooperation while simultaneously preserving profound regional diversity rooted in geography and history.

‭The road map: ‬Present State of Music : An Interactive Radio Experience‬

Participants: Martin Flašar, Emelie Sjöström, Klara Dujmović, Sanket Mahapatra, Pavel Matela/Garance Navarro Ugé, Makin Fung Bing Fai, Barry Wan/Marissa Bili, Evgeny Irshai, Man Tin, Mauro Cardi, Olav Anton Thommessen, Anders Flodin

References: 

FMT – THE ARTS. (2026 May 06). https://fmtarts.wordpress.com/contact-2/ [Accessed: 2026-04-02]

FMT – THE ARTS (2026, May 02). Introduction. [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SftVmCLSY5U [Accessed: 2026-04-02]

Burnely, Charles. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Burney‬ [Wikipedia] [Accessed: 2026-04-02]

Glover, Howard Cedric. (1927). Dr. Charles Burney’s Continental Travels 1770-1772. Blackie and son Limited, London. 1927. https://archive.org/details/drcharlesburneys0000cedr/page/224/mode/2up [Accessed: 2026-04-02]

Cardi, Mauro (2019). Il Diario di Eva [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnuoSlASlR4&list=RDvnuoSlASlR4&start_radio=1&t=13s [Accessed: 2026-04-02]

Cardi, Mauro (2017). La Follia per viola (con viola d’amore) e orchestra d’archi. [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkF_maQ04iw [Accessed: 2026-04-02]

Dujmović, Klara (2026). Fruitful Whisper. [Recording]. Soundcloud. https://soundcloud.com/006klara/fruitful-whisper [Accessed: 2026-04-02]

Flašar, Martin (2022). White. [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkF_maQ04iw [Accessed: 2026-04-02]

Flodin, Anders. (2025). Sud – tre brevi frammenti. [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmNo09lfJbI&list=PLlvxOb1-oNjzZbGxtVCKW9j7WUGCo5hyW&index=8 [Accessed: 2026-04-02]

Fung Bing Fai, Makin (2026) Fading Forest. [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBXyctHGd9s [Accessed: 2026-04-02]

Mahapatra, Sanket (2014) Mumtaz. [Recording]. Soundcloud. https://soundcloud.com/sanketmusic/sanket-mahapatra_mumtaz [Accessed: 2026-04-02]

Matela, Pavel /Ingetrapt (2025). The Duck Factory. [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/ua3cMrNV0F8?si=ilzAYlIVu3gYk-ld [Accessed: 2026-04-02]

Irshai, Evgeny (2005). String Quartet no. 8, “Appointment in Samara”. [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Evgeny+Irshai+string+quartet [Accessed: 2026-04-02]

Sjöström, Emelie (2025). Hormones. [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/ltyJueWE5G0?si=KXwF6GGLazxOh7ju [Accessed: 2026-04-02]

Sjöström, Emelie (2020). The Raving Ones. [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/6cXPS-9QE-M?si=vNas_ohKv2Ed9vW6 [Accessed: 2026-04-02]

Tin, Man (2025). Landscape Traveling Machine. [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/0VzLhxN4k2s [Accessed: 2026-04-02]

Thommessen, Olav Anton (2002). Corellimaskin. [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gCJwWDf4Q4&list=RD8gCJwWDf4Q4&start_radio=1 [Accessed: 2026-04-02]

Wan, Barry /Bili, Marissa (2026). Chanting to the Moon. [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OV3NNO_l84 [Accessed: 2026-04-02]