Lalle Larsson & Thomas Widlund - Marimba Flesheaters
The music of Marimba Flesheaters, featuring Lalle Larsson and percussionist Thomas Widlund, requires almost inhuman practice schedules. Some pieces, for example, had to be rehearsed for a year before they could be performed in front of an audience. Larsson’s meticulous sense of detail can be heard in “The Electric Lobster Marimba Sandwich”, a short piece, one and a half minutes long, but with a 40 page score.
This explosive Swedish duo was formed after the worldpremier of Larsson’s composition Marimba Flesheaters. The piece had been written especially for Thomas Widlund’s debut concert, and was premiered at the Copenhagen Conservatory 2000. The music is influenced by both Jazz, european avant garde music and american contemporary music, and have been described as unique and groundbreaking.
Lalle Larsson’s compositions have been performed in Sweden and Denmark and have met with great reviews.
Repertoire
The Electric Lobster Marimba Sandwich (Larsson) for marimba, piano and CD
This piece is based on a dream in which Lalle was being chased around a shopping center by giant lobsterlike electronic insects.
The shopping center had these gigantic escalators that went up to tiny tiny rooms that you couldn’t enter even if you tried. Here is the soundtrack: download sample
Lunchmusic For Small Hungry Cannibals (Larsson) for piano,synth & multipercussion
A polyrhytmic piece based on four different tempos played at the same time with different limbs.
Puppets (Larsson) for marimba and piano
This piece took Thomas and Lalle almost a year of rehearsing before it could be performed in front of an audience.
It was premiered year 2002 at the same concert as Larsson’s “Seven Deadly Pieces” for chamber orchestra and thrash metal band. download sample
Marimba Flesheaters (Larsson)
This piece was written especially for Thomas Widlund’s debut concert and it was premiered at the Copenhagen Conservatory 2000 with rave reviews. download sample
Thomas Widlund (biography only available in Swedish)
2004 är Thomas aktuell med duon “Marimba Flesheaters”.
Han är frilansande orkestermusiker, solist och lärare på musikskolan i Helsingborg.
Det var för övrigt på denna musikskola som den musikaliska banan en gång startade.
Mellan 2001-2002 var Thomas anställd som slagverkare i Det Kgl. Kapel i Köpenhamn.
1998 tog Thomas efter fem års studier sin diplomexamen från Det Kgl. Danske Musikkonservatorium i Köpenhamn för att sedan fortsätta på solistklassen på samma skola. På sin solistdebut år 2000 grundades duon med pianisten och komponisten Lalle Larsson efter att tillsammans ha uruppfört “Marimba Flesheaters”. På samma konsert uruppfördes även Anders Koppels marimbasolo, “9 Peanuts”. Året innan vann han den internationella “unga solister” tävlingen, arrangerad av Helsingborgs Symfoniorkester. Anders Koppels marimbakonsert var det som framfördes. Samma år var Thomas solist på den internationella slagverksfestivalen i Sevilla i Spanien.
1995 medverkade Thomas i “Leigh Howard Stevens Internationel Marimba Competition” i USA. Utav dem som gick vidare var han enda svensk och yngsta deltagare. Samma år mottog han Helsingborgs kulturstipendie.
Efter provspelning fick han kommande år Kungliga Musikaliska Akademiens stipendie. Samma år var Thomas med slagverksprofessorn Bent Lylloff och några medstuderande i Japan och Israel och gav kammarkonserter.
Genom åren har Thomas kommit att medverka vid flera skiv-, radio-, och tv-inspelningar.