Anna Thorvaldsdottir Archora; Aiōn Iceland Symphony Orchestra/Eva Ollikainen Sono Luminus DSL-92268 (CD plus Blu-ray audio) 61:48 mins
Born near Reykjavík in 1977, and composer-in-residence with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra since 2018, Anna Thorvaldsdottir seems to embody in sound the gargantuan, ancient elemental forces that continue to reshape her homeland. Yet, while nature is a key inspiration – and the results can be overwhelmingly visceral – her music is not directly descriptive. Thorvaldsdottir is ultimately more concerned with inner than outer forms, and – as conductor Eva Ollikainen and the ISO reveal in this thrilling release – finding an organic unity which stems from the perpetual transformation and refinement of material at often microscopic levels.
Archora (2022) and Aiōn (2018) are fundamentally abstract, unleashing primordial energies in shifting layers of sound to different yet related ends. The former explicitly aims to explore these energies alongside ‘the idea of an omnipresent parallel realm…both familiar and strange, static and transforming, nowhere and everywhere.’ Quasi-Stravinskian conflicts abound in one, tautly written movement; through subterranean drones and pulses overlaid with chord clusters and brittle, percussive slaps.
Aiōn (2018) appears to pre-echo this material in longer and more overtly symphonic guise through three movements: ‘Morphosis’, ‘Transcension’ and ‘Entropia’. Here, as might be implied, the impetus is time, which Thorvaldsdottir explores in roiling, sometimes ritualistic textures underpinned by pounding bass drums (three in each piece), ‘as a space that you inhabit rather than … a one-directional journey through a single dimension.’
In effect, both works demonstrate the inseparability of time and space – and their key lies finally in Thorvaldsdottir’s extraordinarily subtle, constantly shifting details of foreground and background.
Steph Power