JEXPER HOLMEN (b.1971): Oort Cloud for 2 Accordions, Saxophone and Electronics, MARTIN STIG ANDERSEN (b.1973): Cosmogyral Echo.
Catalogue Number: 02M110
Label: Dacapo
Reference: 8.226562
Format: CD
Price: $9.98
Description: his entire production seems geared to be as unconventional as possible, and perhaps qualifies more as multimedia performance or conceptual art than a musical presentation per se. The music itself, named after the mysterious cloud of debris outside the solar system from which comets are thought to originate, is an extended, slow-moving entanglement of instrumental textures with something of the nature of 'ambient' music, apart from the fact that, as generally practiced, this genre is largely consonant, whereas Oort Cloud contains passages of strident dissonance, harsh multiphonic playing from the saxophone and clusters on the accordions. DaCapo's website variously describes the piece as '40 minutes', '3/4 of an hour' and 'an hour long'; the duration of the CD is 56 minutes, and after about 41 minutes there is a pause of about a minute during which background noise continues; this is followed by further ambient sounds of a calmer, more electronic and less eventful nature, which may be something to do with 'Martin Stig Andersen: Cosmogyral Echo (2010)' which is mentioned on the CD itself but nowhere else (the date puts it 2 years after the Holmen, and - for additional confusion value - a year after the recording date given for the CD!). Mr. Andersen is also credited as the CD's editor and mastering engineer. The booklet consists of 24 pages of letters from the composer's name and the title of the work arranged apparently randomly with some regular patterning introduced through the progressive introduction and reduction of blank spaces between the letters. Any further patterns or meaning that may be deduced from this is left to the amateur cryptologists among you. Frode Andersen, Frode Haltli (accordions), Torben Snekkestad (sax).