Lofgren / Knudsen / Bengtsson / Blaeld - Aurora - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Rosenbluth/Ephros/Ericson/Stockholm Conservitory - Su L'ore Che L'aurora [COMPACT DISCS] date 04/27/2004

Canadian composer Scott Morgan's 12th long-player as Loscil takes it's title from an influential series of early 20th century photographs by Alfred Stieglitz, abstracting clouds into miasmic, painterly canvases of smoke and shadowplay. It's a deeply fitting analog for Morgan's own musical process across the past two decades, fraying forms and tones into widescreen mirages of opaque texture and negative space. The name Equivalents referred to Stieglitz's notion of the photographs as being equivalent to his Inchphilosophical or emotional states of mind;Inch the same could be said of these eight weighty, shivering chiaroscuros of sound. Each piece unfolds and evolves enigmatically, adrift in low oxygen atmospheres, shifting dramatically from pockets of density to dissipated streaks of moonlit vapor.The entirety of the record was created specifically for the album with the exception of InchEquivalent 7,Inch which began as a dance score for frequent collaborator Vanessa Goodman. The album version of this track was reworked with Vancouver musician Amir Abbey aka Secret Pyramid. Cloud photographs taken by Scott Morgan at various locations throughout Cascadia in 2018.

Active as interpreters in the European musical world, Scandinavian composers in the 19th century were interested in shaping their own style and incorporating it into European music. They were greatly influenced by folk music of different regions in Sweden, Norway and Finland. The Swedish violinist and violin pedagogue, Tor Aulin (1866-1914), was committed to the great romantic music tradition. In 1899, Aulin composed his InchFour WatercolorsInch for violin (or cello) and piano. Also on the disc is the Sonata for violin and piano No. 1 in F Major by Edvard Grieg and following are four miniatures by the composer Jean Sibelius. On the voyage of discovery of traditional sounds of Nordic music, one arrives almost inevitably to Nordic folk music, which inspired the classical composers. Folk melodies are usually interpreted by a group of string instruments, or accompanied by guitar, flute and accordion, and are available today in collections according to the traditional mostly oral transmission. Fritz Froschhammer arranged these versions for violin and piano on this album in cooperation with the Duo Froschhammer in 2017. The Duo Froschhammer features siblings Felix Froschhammer (First Violinist of the casalQuartett and Concertmaster of both the Ensemble Symphonique Neuchâtel and Sinfonietta de Lausanne, Switzerland), violin, and Julia Froschhammer, piano. Founded in 1998, the Duo has since performed in Switzerland, Germany, Italy, France, Malta and at the famous Atheneum in Bucharest. Together they are prize winners of the International Wolfgang Jacobi Competition for 20th century chamber music and have been recipients of scholarships from the Bavarian Music Fund.