ATMOSPHERIQUES Vol. I

Presentación del Álbum

Edgard Varèse never wrote a piece called Atmosphériques, but he might have, and it is the kinds of musical spaces he created that are explored in this release by the Iceland Symphony Orchestra under Daniel Bjarnason's direction. The pieces are not overly long; Anna Thorvaldsdottir's CATAMORPHOSIS (which unfortunately seems to have nothing to do with cats) is the longest one at 20 minutes plus, but they all define vast musical dimensions and fill them with slowly shifting textures. All the pieces are for large conventional orchestra; all except for Missy Mazzoli's 2014 Sinfonia (for Orbiting Spheres), the oldest work on the program, are Icelandic; and all except for Bjarnason's From Space I Saw Earth are by women. This said, listeners who immerse themselves in the music will hear quite a bit of variety. Consider the way Bjarnason's piece dissolves into a haze of triangles at the end, or the novel treatment of time in Maria Huld Markan Sigfúsdottir's Clockworking for orchestra. As a release on the Sono Luminus label, this album will be sought out by audiophiles, and they will not be disappointed; the high definition the label's engineers achieve in the Harpa Concert Hall in Reykjavik will repay high-end stereo investment. An orientation toward the general modern Icelandic style will be helpful here, but this is an unusually nice example, and one looks forward to future releases in the series.
© James Manheim /TiVo