Released on 30 January by the record label Kairos, Ludensemble’s debut album Dream Sequence of an Ancient Forest features music by composer Madli Marje Gildemann. The album’s launch concert will take place on 16 February at 7:00 p.m. at the House of the Black Heads.
Released in January 2026, Dream Sequence of an Ancient Forest brings together works inspired by biological processes, the hidden rhythms of nature, and mythological imagination. The music draws from the invisible life of plants, nocturnal natural cycles, and the dreamlike world of the forest, while also engaging with the human-made world and its mythological meanings. The album features performances by Kadri-Ann Sumera, Talvi Hunt, Ludensemble, and conductor Kaspar Mänd.
The album was produced in collaboration with the renowned Austrian contemporary music label Kairos, dedicated to new music. Kairos has released recordings by composers such as Enno Poppe, Tristan Murail, and Karlheinz Stockhausen, as well as ensembles including Musikfabrik, Ensemble Intercontemporain, and Klangforum Wien. The production of the album was supported by the Estonian Authors’ Society and the Estonian Cultural Endowment.
At the album release concert on 16 February at the House of the Black Heads, performers include Kadri-Ann Sumera (piano), Madli Marje Gildemann (piano), Taniel Kirikal (overtone singing), Raido Lill (throat singing), and Ludensemble in the following lineup: Maria Luisk (flute), Alexander Avramenko (clarinet), Kaija Lukas (violin), Elisabeth Härmand (violin), Sandra Klimaitė (viola), Theodor Sink (cello), Regina Udod and Madis Jürgens (double bass), Kärt Ruubel (piano), and Maarja Nuut and Tiit Joamets (percussion). The conductor is Kaspar Mänd. The post-concert discussion will be moderated by Johanna Mängel.
Madli Marje Gildemann’s work is strongly influenced by her interest in biological processes and natural phenomena. Her music emerges from an attempt to make these processes perceptible through sound, creating distinctive and atmospheric soundscapes. Gildemann has written music for ensembles and orchestras such as Klangforum Wien, Adelphi String Quartet, Pärnu City Orchestra, Ensemble for New Music Tallinn, Ensemble 21, the Estonian Percussion Ensemble, Mondrian Ensemble, Ensemble Synaesthesis, Sinfonietta Rīga, the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, and Ensemble U:.
In 2022, Gildemann received second prize in the under-30 category at the International Rostrum of Composers in Palermo for her work Transpiration. In 2023, she won the ISCM Young Composer Award in Cape Town for Osmosis, which was performed at the ISCM World New Music Days. The same year, Transpiration was nominated for the Prince Pierre of Monaco Music Award. In 2024, Gildemann received the LHV New Composition Award (Honourable Mention) for Nocturnal Migrants, one of Estonia’s most significant contemporary music prizes. Her music has been performed at numerous international festivals, including ORF Musikprotokoll, the Lucerne Festival, the Bern Music Festival, Estonian Music Days, Baltic Music Days, ISCM World New Music Days, the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Al(t)chemie Festival, Classical:NEXT Showcase, and Afekt Festival.
Ludensemble is a music collective founded in January 2024 with the aim of creating conceptual concert programmes and connecting contemporary music with other art forms, encouraging the commissioning, performance, and dissemination of new works, and bringing to audiences important repertoire from the past century. The ensemble’s instrumentation varies as needed, from chamber ensemble to chamber orchestra. While contemporary music and collaboration with today’s composers are at its core, the ensemble also approaches cross-temporal connections with curiosity and imagination, allowing its repertoire to extend centuries into the past. Ludens (Latin for “playing”) reflects the ensemble’s playful approach to music, time, media, and form. Ludensemble has performed at the TMW Classical NEXT: Showcase and has performed and recorded new works by Kirke Karja and Madli Marje Gildemann, as well as music by Arnold Schoenberg, György Ligeti, Luigi Dallapiccola, Philippe Hersant, Frank Zappa, and others.
Tickets for the album release concert:
https://piletikeskus.ee/et/e/qootw1
Album information:
https://kairos-music.com/products/recording/0022020kai
Album on Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/artist/3PMBQhcvQDCDqwNCAsK53x