Orchestral music on environmental and environmentalist themes has grown more common on both sides of the Atlantic, and this recording, appropriately enough from Norway's
Arctic Philharmonic, is a strong entry in the genre.
Lyden av Arktis means "
Sound of the Arctic," and the work consists of seven sections, two of them having two subsections each, that depict sounds and scenes of the region. The first movement, "Only White," embodies strong wind; it sounds electronic but is not, using the hurre ("a bull roarer") and plastic hoses swung in the air. Elsewhere, there are glaciers moving and breaking up, sea birds, and sounds of the peoples of the region; the finale, with depressing predictability, is called "Collapse." An intriguing feature of the work is that composer
Lasse Thoresen allows for the possibility that its movements may be performed separately or together, and indeed, they are strong enough to stand individually. The
Arctic Philharmonic of Trondheim and conductor
Christian Kluxen commissioned this work, and
Thoresen has endorsed their clean, dry performances. The
2L label has garnered various Grammy Awards and others for its engineering, and here, the team outdoes itself; don't be surprised to see the album rack up another Grammy. ~ James Manheim
