Rolf Enström achieved his breaktrough as a composer with the multimedia piece "MYR" at the 1979 ISCM Festival in Athens. Since then he has produced frequently performed tape compositions like Slutförbannelser, Tjidtjag & Tjidtjaggaise (Prix Itali 1987) - together with Thomas Hellsing - a succession of widely noticed video programmes (bildspel).
Vigil, composed in 1994 for the Stockholm Saxophone Quartet, was commissioned by the Swedish National Concert Institute and premiered during the Stockholm Electronic Music Festival that year.
It is Enström's first work using te NeXT computer with ISPW (Ircam signal Processing Workstation ). The synthophoneist processes a pre-recorded tape voice with the aid of ISPW, which enables him to control both feedback and distortion.
For the première performance the composer wrote: " . .even if what I mean by Vigil differs from what Coltrane meant by it, it can on the other hand very well agree with what Brötzmann might mean. Tone quality - a process which is monitored and controlled - a balance influenced by the energy of the moment, may become the form of the piece".
Göran Bergendahl