Journeys in Modern Classical – Stationary Travels
This week’s modern classical listening journey offers up over four hours of some of the most beautiful, expressive, and thoughtfully composed music from around the globe that you could hope to find. Dive in and linger with these gems from Brueder Selke & Midori Hirano, Julia Gjertsen & Gustav Davidsson, Max Richter, Snorri Hallgrímsson, Sofi Paez & Davidsson, and Sophie Hutchings.
Brueder Selke & Midori Hirano – Split Scale
https://midorih.bandcamp.com/album/split-scale
An early year release I’ve been remiss to not share before now, Split Scale is an intriguing collaboration between Japanese musician, composer, and sound artist Midori Hirano and brothers Sebastian & Daniel Selke aka Brueder Selke who are all part of Berlin’s contemporary new music scene. The album is partially a soundscape and partially a dialogue between artists in which the notes of a scale are split apart, A through G and back to A, with piece each serving as a starting point and tonal foundation for a different track, a process Hirano likened to “climbing up a long, colorful staircase”. Each known for their distinctive incorporation of synthesis and electronic textures with virtuosic musicianship, it makes for a dynamic and beautiful listening experience.
We, in a way, traveled back in time back to our beginnings… our choice of tones was relatively simple, intuitive, almost child’s play. We wanted to take this unique opportunity with Midori to start from zero, and to do it together.
Brueder Selke
Split Scale is available on CD and clear vinyl LP as well as digital & streaming via Thrill Jockey Records. The album was mastered by Rashad Becker
and features artwork by Daniel Castrejón.
Julia Gjertsen & Gustav Davidsson – Wandering Mind, Drifting Weather
https://whitelabrecs.bandcamp.com/album/wandering-mind-drifting-weather
A wonderfully moody blend of classical and atmospheric Nordic jazz elements, Wandering Mind, Drifting Weather is a collaboration between Norwegian composer and pianist Julia Gjertsen and Swedish trombonist and sound artist Gustav Davidsson. The album was developed via an exchange of sketches that were sent back and forth between the two artists over a period of several months. The album notes affirm that the title can be seen as a metaphor for the process and its outcome, suggesting that the music can be imagined as “weather in motion” patiently drifting cloud-like through ever changing air currents and patterns of light. Impressionistic and contemplative in nature, I found it especially enjoyable to listen to this record at the very start or end of a day.
Wandering Mind, Drifting Weather is available as a digital release from Whitelabrecs. The album was mastered by Gustav Davidsson and features photography by Julia Gjertsen and art & design by Andrew Heath.
Max Richter – Sleep Circle
https://dg.lnk.to/SLEEPCircle
Marking the 10th anniversary of his remarkable eight-and-a-half-hour composition SLEEP, Max Richter just released a brand-new distillation of the original music entitled Sleep Circle. Designed to mirror the natural 90-minute REM cycle of human sleep, the compositional focus and architecture of the album were informed by insights the composer gained while performing an abridged version of SLEEP in a live setting. This more concise form gives a sharpened clarity to the haunting, ethereal beauty of the music and even more poignancy to its stated goal of serving as “a counterargument to our oversaturated, overstimulated world”.
Sleep Circle is available on CD, vinyl LP, digital and streaming via Deutsche Grammophon.
Snorri Hallgrímsson – The Importance of Birds
https://dg.lnk.to/HallgrimssonImportanceBirds
A classical guitarist who fell in love with film music and went on to study composition at t the Iceland Academy of the Arts and at Berklee College of Music, Snorri Hallgrímsson has gone from collaborating with Ólafur Arnalds on the BAFTA-award winning score for Broadchurch to releasing beautiful solo works of his own. The latest of these is The Importance of Birds, a record that he describes as being about “grief, solace, humility and the lack of it, writer’s block, softness and failure” but which he hopes the listener will make it about whatever they need to make it about. One thing is for certain – Hallgrímsson has clearly put much thought and sincere emotion in these pieces of music which are imbued with a delicate and ephemeral beauty befitting their titular inspiration. For this listener at least, the feeling is not unlike looking to the skies on a clear day and that is welcome and hopeful feeling indeed.
The Importance of Birds is available on vinyl LP as well as digital and streaming via Deutsche Grammophon.
Sofi Paez & Davidsson feat. Skúli Sverrisson- Reykjavík Sessions (Live)
https://OPIA.lnk.to/ReykjavikSessions
Founded by Ólafur Arnalds, OPIA is more than a record label – it is a three-pronged entity that also includes a community hub and a travelling festival series all meant to foster a variety of conversations and initiatives in the space “where modern-classical music meets electronic and beyond”. A prime example is this video EP that features live performances by Costa Rican pianist Sofi Paez, whose 2024 debut Silent Stories was released by OPIA, and Icelandic multi-instrumentalist Davidsson who distinctively places harmonica and pedal-steel guitar at the forefront of his sound. Paez offers up a beautiful rendition of “Amsterdam”, one of her signature solo pieces and a lovely, improvised duet called “Ripples” in which her piano lines dance around Davidsson’s expressive harmonica. The collection is rounded out by Davidsson’s “On Thin Air”, a dreamy pedal-steel driven piece inspired by the idea of climbing the world’s tallest peaks and featuring Icelandic bass guitarist & composer Skúli Sverrisson.
To be able to do something improvised between us and just let the music guide us to where it was needed was a really unique feeling. Different from what I’m used to as a soloist. I remember being in the room and feeling the magic of what we had created and hopefully people can feel it and hear it too.
Sofi Paez
Reykjavík Sessions (Live) can be found on YouTube with audio streaming available on major digital platforms (see link above).
Sophie Hutchings – Become the Sky
https://sophiehutchings.lnk.to/becometheskyID
Two years ago, Sophie Hutchings took listeners on a musical adventure with her road-trip inspired opus A World Outside. This year, the Australian pianist & composer followed up with another record inspired by natural themes, but one that is mor intimate and stripped back by design. Recorded at the Australian Chamber Orchestra’s studios in Sydney, Become the Sky is a collection of meditative songs led primarily by her fluid and expressive piano playing which capture the essence of the imagery suggested in such picturesque titles such as “Fragments of Light”, “The Gathering Dusk”, or “Secrets to the Sea”. Hutchings has shown herself before to be master of this realm in which elegant classical compositions conjoin with the spirit of freedom and joy found in the appreciation of nature, but perhaps never more beautifully than here.
Music has this incredible power to fuel our minds, transport us to different places, and help us hold onto deeply felt memories. In our fast-paced, often anxiety-fueled world, ‘Become the Sky’ was written to be a musical companion – a way to slow down and truly appreciate life in slow motion.
Sophie Hutchings
Become the Sky is available for download and streaming on most major platforms via Mercury KX.
