Abigail Toll

Abigail Toll, Idol
Caleb Salgado (double bass), Abigail Toll (electronics, flute)

Toll & Kjartansson, Martírios | Work Songs (Studies for Guitar)
premiered by Stirnir Kjartansson (solo electric guitar)

Abigail Toll's Idol (Superpang 2025) is inspired by Malta's Hypogeum, a 5,000 year old burial site whose chambers cause trance-like sensations when they resonate with sound. Using the resonant frequencies of the Hypogeum as the basis for the tuning system, Toll re-contextualises the quantum aspects behind the ancient monument through drone, psychoacoustic soundscapes, and tonal deviations to form prismatic deep-listening environments.

Martírios | Work Songs is the premiere of four studies for solo electric guitar, composed by Abigail Toll in collaboration with Icelandic guitarist and composer Stirnir Kjartansson. The studies fall within the broader framework of Toll’s pastoral sound research project “Where Words Fail.” These guitar studies deconstruct and explore the emotional and beating tonal qualities of the traditional Vos desafinada (“out of tune”) Portuguese song “Martírios” (Martyrdom), which was recorded and archived by Michel Giacometti & Fernando Lopes-Graça.