Northern Lights|Southern Nights

About the Music

Kjell Habbestad: from String Quartet No. 1, Op. 21, “Quattro stazioni”: IV. Giocoso (1989)

The material for this movement is derived from a Norwegian halling (folk dance) called Vassenda-slåtten, later named Rotnheims-Knut. The tune was originally played on hardanger fiddle. The first appearance of this slått is Christmas Eve 1695, before it came to the Hardanger fiddle, which later became its common medium. Vassenda-slåtten has a complex structure, rich counterpoint, and harmonic language so radical that composers hesitated for more than 100 years to make use of it. This movement keeps very close to the original material, expanding it for string quartet.

Kjell Habbestad is a Norwegian composer whose more than 60 works comprise orchestral, chamber, choral, organ, and piano repertoire. as well as a number of choir works. His work Mostraspelet has seen annual performances in Bømlo since 1983. Habbestad served as a member of the board for the Norwegian Society of Composers from 1987 to 1996, as deputy director for the organization from 1990 to 1996, and as leader of NSC’s advisory committee from 1996 to 2002.

Clarice Assad: RETRO POP (2023)

RETRO POP is a collection of my earliest emotional musical memories, inspired by artists and genres that were once rather popular and, in many ways, not only made their mark in the time they lived, but also influenced a myriad of artists who later came onto the scene.

This three-movement work opens with À Primeira Vista, a mixture of a re-imagined 6/8 pop ballad inspired by John Lennon’sNorwegian Wood with signature progressive rock band meter-changing techniques. The second song is a nostalgic, melancholy homage to the French composer Michel Legrand, who passed away in early 2019. Legrand was famous for many popular movie scores, including hits like Summer of ‘42 and The Windmills of Your Mind, with lyrics by Marilyn and Alan Bergman. The original, in French, was called Les Moulins de mon cœur and was written by Eddy Marnay.

Legrand was a master at taking a tiny melodic theme and transposing it ad infinitum into sequences and cadences while making the most apparent II-V-I progressions sound rewarding.

The set finishes with Samba-Funk, an energetic blend of pop, funk, samba, and some Latin riffs inspired by Herbie Hancock’s textures from his album Mr. Hands, along with the fabulous sounds of Brazilian singer-pianist Tania Maria.

Jóhann Jóhannsson: Flight from the City (2012)

Flight from the City is the first track on Jóhann Jóhannsson’s tenth studio album, Orphée, which was inspired by Jean Cocteau’s film of the same name. His first release on Deutsche Grammphon in 2016, it would also become his last during his lifetime. The track consists of a heartbreakingly simple phrase iterated several times by the piano, embraced by wispy strings and electronics.

Jóhann Jóhannsson was an Icelandic composer who wrote music for a wide array of media including theater, dance, television, and film. His work is stylised by its blending of traditional orchestration with contemporary electronic elements. Some of his works in film include the original scores for Denis Villeneuve’s Prisoners, Sicario, and Arrival, and James Marsh’s The Theory of Everything. Jóhannsson was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Score for both The Theory of Everything and Sicario, and won a Golden Globe for Best Original Score for the former. His only directorial work, Last and First Men, premiered at the Manchester International Festival in 2017, where he also performed the score live with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra.

Dan Trueman in collaboration with Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh: Midden Find (2022)

A midden may contain a mysterious world of beauty for the archaeologist; however for those long-disappeared creatures, human or otherwise, who created it, the midden was merely a place to throw one’s garbage. For some years now, we make new tunes together. They come into being piece by piece: a shard here, a sliver there — slowly we get a sense of what the tune is to become. It goes the other way, too — a fully formed piece is shattered into fragments, seeking to find the smallest piece which hints at the ghost of the whole.

Midden Find comprises five such tunes:
1. Haw was discovered with surprise.
2. Henge was discarded long ago, then dug upagain. It seems to us as though it could once have served for a ritual or meditation.
3. A tune such as Stromatolith may be rough around the edges, unfinished, perhaps either damaged by neglect or smoothed by weathering like sea-glass.
4. Quern Stone once had a purpose, long ago.
5. And I Can Feel It In My Bones is the hair standing on the back of your head, because you just know. (What it is that you know is a little hard to put your finger on.)

Emilia Amper: Spelpuma (2016)

Spelpuma (the literal translation is “cougar games”) was written as an homage to her teacher, Peter “Puma” Helund. He is a legendary player of and ambassador for the Nyckelharpa, leading its revival after near extinction in the mid-1900’s. Both Helund and Amper are prime examples of an unbroken lineage linking past, present and future masters of traditional music in Sweden.

Emilia Amper has written music for nyckelharpa (her own primary instrument), vocals, string ensemble, orchestra, and choir for almost 30 years. She tours worldwide, playing, singing, composing, and teaching all over Europe, in China, the US, Canada, Namibia, India, Iran, Hong Kong, and Brazil. Her work has been recognized with a world champion nyckelharpa award in 2010, Artist of the Year at the Swedish Folk & World Music Awards, and two GRAMMY nominations. She teaches arranging and composition for the Nordic Master in Folk Music students at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm.