Cheap New Electronic Music from Iceland (Music) (Kjartan Olafsson, Matthias Hemstock, Hilmar Jensson) Price

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Customer Reviews of New Electronic Music from Iceland

Nothing really new but different enough to warrant a listen
The sleeve-notes of this CD tell us that Kjartan Ólafsson studied with (amongst others) Einojuhani Rautavaara at the Sibelius Academy, during and immediately prior to the composition of the three fairly recent works presented here. Any influences he may have drawn from this particular tutor, though, are not immediately obvious in any of the music on offer. It is hard, in fact, to identify just what this Icelandic composer's most significant influences might indeed be. I suspect that they are many and various and are, in any case, tempered by an over-riding individuality that makes this CD something of a marked departure from most other contemporary musical fare.

If pushed to find comparisons, I would probably describe the music presented on this release as a cross between the strict formal atonality of Pierre Boulez and the freer, more spatially informed, electronic compositions common amongst Scandinavian electroacoustic composers generally but typified best perhaps by the large scale works of Gunner Møller Pederson. There also seems to be a hint of more popular musical traditions, such as jazz, as well as something of the anarchy of 1970's German "Kraut-rock" thrown in for good measure in some places, too! (Serious Klaus Schulze fans should love it!)

All of the music on this disc was produced to some degree or other with the assistance of computer software of the composer's own devising, the CALMUS (Calculated Music) program. Whether as a result of the use of this software, or whether simply by compositional design, a strong sonic similarity pervades all of the works featured here. Indeed, anyone need sample but a little to decide whether or not this is a disc for them.

The first half of the disc consists of two extremely similar works, both dating from 1994. The first, the 9-minute "Samantekt: Þrír heimar í einum (Summary: Three Worlds According to One)", provides the title for the disc as a whole. It features an ethereal combination of slowly evolving, breathy electronic tones and textures, which are punctuated at intervals with bursts of processed acoustic orchestral and percussion sounds. The results would easily pass as the soundtrack from a science fiction or horror movie, being suggestive of something disturbing and threatening for much of the time. The slightly longer "Tvíhljóð I (Diphthong I)", which follows, is sufficiently similar in content and form to pass as a continuation of the opening track.

The third and final track, entitled "Skammdegi (Darkdays)" and dating from 1996, is a more substantial affair, both sonically and structurally, although it remains not far removed musically from its platter-fellows. Clocking in at 25 minutes or so, this track combines live, mostly improvised, classical and jazz guitars, as well as a standard jazz percussion combo, with computer generated synthetic sound. The additional elements integrate fully into the composer's established soundworld, though, and the track acts firstly as a kind of extemporisation and later as a recapitulation of the material on the rest of the disc.

Despite the subtitle of this release ("New Electronic Music from Iceland"), there is really not much that is particularly new (in the sense of ground-breaking) on this disc, although there is no doubt that these works qualify as free from (or at least suitably contemptuous of) the constraints of former formal compositional bounds. And whilst there is nothing very exciting here (I suspect that like much improvised music, these works are better heard in concert than in a domestic setting) anyone looking for something away from the ordinary, well-beaten paths may find themselves perfectly at home with this release. Others, of course, may merely be bored.

Incidentally, there is no need to worry about the disc's rather parsimonious 47-and-a-half minutes playing time. If you want more, simply apply your CD player's 'repeat' function!