Stephen Altoft and Lore Amenabar Larrañaga were brought together by the composer, media artist and microtonalist, Donald Bousted. In his mixed media lockdown project ‘Six times one’, they play in ‘Sand Walking’. Under the name, duo Vortex they made their live debut with this piece at the Hyperchromatic Festival at London’s Goldsmiths University in April 2025.
You can watch Sand Walking here.
Repertoire
- Donald Bousted (UK) Sand Walking (2020) with fixed media (1
Quarter-tone trumpet and Quarter-tone Accordion
- Ben Lunn (UK) For Anne (2025) (5’)
Quarter-tone Flugelhorn and Quarter-tone Accordion
- Emily Koh (SI / USA) premor(di)al; er0sure
Quarter-tone Trumpet and Quarter-tone Accordion
- Nina Senk (SL) One’s Song IV (2012/ 2020)
Quarter-tone Trumpet and Classical Accordion
- Hilary Robinson (UK) Flow & Swell (2024) with projected photos (variable duration), Flugelhorn and Accordion
Stephen Altoft is dedicated to the creation of new repertoire for the trumpet. As a solo artist, and with percussionist Lee Ferguson as duo Contour, he has given concerts throughout Asia, Europe, the United States and Canada. For over twenty years he researched the microtonal possibilities of the trumpet with composer, Donald Bousted, and at Musik Gillhaus (Freiburg, Germany) has developed a fourth (rotary) valve mechanism to enable the conversion of his existing trumpets into microtonal instruments (a 19-division B flat trumpet and quarter-tone C trumpet). More recently, he has also been developing programmes for flugelhorn in 12-, 19-, 24- and 38-divisions of the octave in an harmonic environment.
The scope of Stephen’s work as an improviser began with the experimental (new music) and now includes what has been referred to as ‘intuitive music’: being open to a variety of styles, sounds and spontaneous influences. He currently has projects with the accordionist, Karin Fleck, the double bassist, Johannes Nied (FLOWduo, microtonal music) and the guitarist/ lutenist and composer, Gilbert Isbin. His work with Isbin began with Soundscapes, which have been released on YouTube, and also on Bandcamp by the Belgian label, Jazz’halo, and was selected by Jazz in Belgium for their Retrospective 2024 Playlist collaboration with Musiq3. Their second project, Rencounter, is also on YouTube and a larger selection of tracks is to be released on Bandcamp this year.
Lore Amenabar Larrañaga is a musician based in London. She completed both her Bachelor and Master studies at the Sibelius Academy, University of the Arts Helsinki, with Prof Matti Rantanen, Dr Mika Väyrynen, and Dr Veli Kujala, graduating with first-class honours. She has also completed a PhD at the Royal Academy of Music in London, kindly supported by ‘La Caixa Foundation’. Currently, she works as an Academic Music teacher at the Yehudi Menuhin School, in the UK.
An accomplished performer across styles – from folk music to the classical canon – Lore is especially passionate about artistic collaboration and performing new music. She has given the debut performances of She Keeps Walking Over Paper by Claudia Molitor (London 2020) and Unbroken by Howard Skempton (London 2021), and while studying in Helsinki, premièred Finnish Suite by Matti Murto (Ikaalinen 2017). After winning the Juventudes Musicales de España competition, she gave a series of solo concerts in 2018 as a tour across Spain.
Lore has also developed a new musical instrument: the Quarter-Tone Accordion. On this instrument, she has premièred pieces by Michael Finnissy, Electra Perivolaris, Christopher Fox, and Mioko Yokoyama among others, all featured in an album titled ISPILU, released in 2023.