The beauty and profundity of Valen's subdued but expressive music is being discovered by more and more listeners. The legendary pianist Glenn Gould recognized the importance of Valen's music, saying for the first time in many years I have found a looming personality in the 20th century's music.

This music celebrates the 2014 bicentenary of the Norwegian Constitution. The works serve as a compelling musical history book, offering insight into parts of the Norwegian saga. Several songs are clear examples of how a "national song" can be a way of marking and remembering history. We’ve given the national anthem in its complete form, something seldom done, and, through many fresh arrangements of familiar melodies and a splendid "outdoor" sound, offer a new and invigorating listening experience.

Classical Music

Trio Mediæval’s collection of hymns and lullabies — intimate songs as old as time and as new as tomorrow: this is music with no boundaries, celebrating our common humanity. We’ll never know the first song or the first singer, and we’ll never know what they sang about. But if time could unwind and we could hear it, perhaps we would witness a mother or a father singing the first lullaby. When we sing a hymn or a lullaby we become a link in a chain that began in the unknowable past and will stretch into the infinite future: a timeless continuum of solace and comfort. The new lullabies by Anders Jormin and Sinikka Langeland began in their heads as little musical gifts for real children, and are here sung for all of us by three singers who have sung many a lullaby to their own children, aided and abetted on this album by Trygve Seim, and Mats Eilertsen, fathers both. Hailed as a "fascinating journey with music of timeless beauty", Trio Mediæval’s highly acclaimed first album Words of the Angel in 2001 launched the group into the elite circles of early music ensembles and introduced them to a broad international audience. Formed in 1997, the Grammy nominated vocal ensemble consists of founder members Linn Andrea Fuglseth and Anna Maria Friman, and Jorunn Lovise Husan who joined the group in 2018. Trio Mediæval has recorded eight albums for ECM Records. Solacium is their first release with the Norwegian label 2L.

Classical Music

This album is spun out of the musical friendship between Christophersen and Haltlia, and features whirling overtone spectra, virtuosic gestures, beautiful melodic ambiguity and quiet spaces – musical moments and extended structures – all woven together into an hour-long musical narrative. Bjørn Morten Christophersen is continually in pursuit of new musical stories. Whether writing for choir, orchestra, chamber ensembles or TV drama, a clear voice always carries the narrative. The six musicians gathered for this recording are all members of the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, and they play together in the ensemble Norwegian Brass Expo. They are among the best and most experienced brass players in Scandinavia and come from a Nordic brass tradition advocating a homogenous and beautiful sound.

So Is My Love is about love and the beloved, and this includes the sense of love awakened in us by religious faith and by nature. In works by Dyrud, Ødegaard, Havrøy, Daniel-Lesur and Stockhausen the countless facets of love are painted in music and words: we encounter passion, lust, prayer and longing, but we also find humor, playfulness and joy.

The two previous albums produced by 2L with Ensemble 96 were honored by The Recording Academy with nominations to the GRAMMY Awards in both technical craft and performance categories.

Maja S.K. Ratkje says of her compositional process: “The process of composition is primarily about mastering form and contextualizing elements- both the actual sounds and the formal units- musically.” She approaches all of her new works through the lens of an improvising musician. “And sing while thou on pressed flowers dost sleep,” features Ratkje’s pre-recorded voice. This is just one of the fascinating ways in which the composer winds her own performing voice through the ensemble sound of Cikada and Oslo Sinfonietta. “Ratkje brings a feral disregard for conventional form, combined with an extravagant imagination, linking it all to a fascination with the human voice and its communicative possibilities. Her works are dramatic, engaging and wildly diverse.” (Financial Times)

Featuring music created in the spur of the moment, straight from the heart, and inspired by a deep connection to New York life and scenery—this collection contains some of Gjeilo’s most soulful and passionate music; ranging from the introspective wistfulness of Dark Blue to the serene joyfulness of Snow in New York, and to fantasies around his own choral works.

Classical Music

This wonderful release features Schubert's String Quartet No. 14 in D minor, D. 810 and Grieg's String Quartet in G Minor, Op. 27. By placing side by side two works that at first sight seem fairly different, this recording aims to bring into the open, for the first time, the fascinating details that link them.

Classical Music

The Norwegian violinist Ole Bull (1810-1880) is often called "the Nordic Paganini". Wherever he played, he held audiences spellbound with his incredible technique and personal charisma. In his native Norway he is revered first and foremost for his pioneering and dynamic role in the movement for a national identity in the fields of music and the dramatic arts. Bull recognized Henrik Ibsen's and Bjornstjerne Bjornson's potential as dramatists and gave them indispensable opportunities to advance their careers at his Norwegian theatre in Bergen. He held Norwegian folk music in as high esteem as he did European classical music, and he incorporated national melodies in his compositions to portray Norwegian nature and life, for example in Norges Fjelde and Vilspel i Lio. This recording, a sequel to the album that violinist Annar Folleso and the Norwegian Radio Orchestra released in 2010, features compositions that have only been played by Ole Bull himself, and which therefore have not been heard since his death in 1880. Largo posato e Rondò capriccioso (1841) and Fantasy on "Lilly Dale" (1872) are not just examples of Bull's international style - they also bear witness to his stamina as performer and virtuoso. The surviving musical manuscripts are incomplete, but Wolfgang Plagge, with his intimate knowledge of Bull's composition technique, and in collaboration with Annar Folleso, has been able to reconstruct the music.

Classical Music

Ståle Kleiberg’s concertos unfold in the space between poetry, passion and playfulness. This is contemporary music with which listeners can easily engage, but which does not for one moment compromise artistic quality. “I try to form the musical expression so that it corresponds with my experience of life; or, to put it another way, to form it so that it is in accord with my conception of what it means to be a human being,” says Kleiberg about himself and his music. When the pandemic hit the world with full force in 2020, preparations for this album had been under way for some time. A recording involving a symphony orchestra and three soloists can hardly be arranged on a Monday and executed on a Tuesday – to put it mildly. There are many pieces of the jigsaw puzzle that must somehow find their place. When Norway went into lockdown in March 2020, the pieces were ready, contracts and agreements signed, and the recording dates booked. We wondered how it would all pan out. We even wondered for a while if the recordings could take place at all. Fortunately, the flexibility and the readiness to find creative solutions to new problems shown by everyone involved meant that we were able to get the job done in spite of all the difficulties. In fact, we experienced a personal presence and greater attention to detail than ever before, rather like recording chamber music with the sonic palette of the full orchestra.

The celebration of YULE in Northern Europe harks back to a transition from ancient Pagan Germanic culture to the more formal spirituality of the newer Christian rite. On this album the two traditions sit side by side, creating a matrix where acappella voices meet improvising instruments in a synthesis of secular and sacred.

Trio Mediæval - Anna Maria Friman - Linn Andrea Fuglseth - Jorunn Lovise + Husan Sinikka Langeland, kantele; Vegar Vårdal, hardanger fiddle and violin; Arve Henriksen, trumpet and organ; Anders Jormin, double bass; Helge Norbakken, percussion.

Advent and Christmas are for many people a time for light and hope and warmth. Yet the world around us is cold and turbulent. Wars are being fought. People are fleeing from their homes. Children are dying. Thousands of people lack food and medicine. Our prayers are for peace. We sing "Beautiful is our Earth! Glorious is God's heaven!" as a protest song for peace and justice, the world being unjust. During Advent many of us are fond of the familiar and much-loved Christmas carols as we remember them from our childhood, and as they have been sung for generations. There are carols in these traditional arrangements on this album, but there are others in completely new arrangements, made specially for Uranienborg Vokalensemble and for this recording. Christmas can be a festival that intensifies our feelings - what is good seems even better, and what hurts feels even more painful. Perhaps we have lost someone close to us: can we then sing "Oh, Christmas, so cheerful"? We know that there are people who look forward to Christmas but at the same time dread it, and we believe that Kjetil Bjerkestrand's arrangement brings out this element of equivocation and irony. The birth of Jesus - this is the message of Christmas! - a birth that changed the world for ever. May your Christmas be peaceful! Uranienborg Vokalensemble Elisabeth Holte, conductor Kjetil Bjerkestrand, synthesizers Øystein Moen, synthesizers Torun Torbo, flute Henriette Viktoria Eide Skagen, organ Morten Lindberg, balance engineer and recording producer Disc 1 Hybrid SACD MCH 5.1 DSD Stereo DSD RedBook PCM: MQA CD Disc 2 Pure Audio Blu-ray 2.0 LPCM 192/24 5.1 DTS HDMA 192/24 7.1.4 Auro-3D 96kHz 9.1.4 Dolby Atmos 48kHz mShuttle: MQA + FLAC + MP3 Region: ABC - worldwide

Folk tunes have always been an important part of the repertoire of the Norwegian Girls Choir; being a vital aspect of the choir's identity and of it's active enactment of cultural tradition. In STJERNEBRU orjan Matre has taken a selection of Norwegian folk tunes as his starting point, and they are combined with improvisations and arrangements as intermezzos. The word Stjernebru (Bridge of Stars) is taken from the hymn Nedi vester soli glader (The sun is sinking in the west), and alludes to the journey to the next world: the transition, or bridge, from the earthly to the eternal. The word can also refer to the night sky itself, and Lux Aeterna - eternal light - is a theme that runs through the whole album. Det Norske Jentekor Anne Karin Sundal-Ask, conductor Gjermund Larsen, fiddle Frode Haltli, accordion orjan Matre, composer Morten Lindberg, balance engineer and recording producer Disc 1 Hybrid SACD MCH 5.0 DSD Stereo DSD RedBook PCM: MQA CD Disc 2 Pure Audio Blu-ray 2.0 LPCM 192/24 5.0 DTS HDMA 192/24 7.0.4 Auro-3D 96kHz 7.0.4 Dolby Atmos 48kHz mShuttle: MQA + FLAC + MP3 Region: ABC - worldwide

The exquisitely decorated 15th century choir book known as the Old Hall manuscript was lost to history for the best part of 400 years until its reappearance in a Catholic seminary at the end of the 19th century. The largest surviving collection of medieval motets and mass movements, it immediately became the most celebrated source of English music of the period. It was written in the first instance by a single scribe to ensure that the music of his fellow singers was not forgotten. Many of them are known only from this manuscript, and on this album they find their voices again after more than half a millennium of silence, transformed by the singing of Trio Mediæval in the company of Catalina Vicens, alongside new music by David Lang and Marianne Reidarsdatter Eriksen. Hailed as a "fascinating journey with music of timeless beauty", Trio Mediæval’s highly acclaimed first album Words of the Angel in 2001 launched the group into the elite circles of early music ensembles and introduced them to a broad international audience. Formed in 1997, the Grammy nominated vocal ensemble consists of founder members Linn Andrea Fuglseth and Anna Maria Friman, and Jorunn Lovise Husan who joined the group in 2018. Trio Mediæval has recorded eight albums for ECM Records. An Old Hall Ladymass is their second release, following Solacium, with the Norwegian label 2L. Produced by Morten Lindberg.

MOTHER - a word that evokes associations - memories - emotions. Which mother do you think of? A loving mother with a newborn baby in her arms. Intimacy. A despairing mother in deep grief over a lost life. Emptiness. Through words and music our lives are woven together with Mary's life and perhaps we sense that a mother's pain and sorrow, a mother's strength and endurance, a mother's warmth and love are the same now as they were two thousand years ago. Petra Bjorkhaug and Ragnhild Jepsen's SÅRMERKT interleaved with Domenico Scarlatti's STABAT MATER. Disc 1 Hybrid SACD MCH 5.0DSD Stereo DSD RedBook PCM: MQA CD Disc 2 Pure Audio Blu-ray 2.0 LPCM 192/24 5.0 DTS HDMA 192/24 7.0.4 Auro-3D 96kHz 7.0.4 Dolby Atmos 48kHz mShuttle: MQA + FLAC + MP3 Region: ABC - worldwide

PAX is a concept in which music, lyrics and the sacred space of the cathedral energize each other in these performances of new works by Norwegian composers who all approach the theme of peace with their own individual reflections and interpretations. The music is composed specifically to be performed and recorded as an immersive experience.

As the eighteenth century progressed, Trondheim experienced strong economic growth. The Great Nordic War was over, and merchants set about exporting timber, stockfish, and copper from the mines of Trøndelag. They maintained close contact with their networks in the main cities of Northern Europe, and Trondheim's luxury and extravagance characterised its social milieu. Thus, the latest fashions, literature and music from the Continent found their way to Trondheim. This recording portrays a selection of contemporaneous music that is preserved in Trondheim. The manuscripts may be found in the Gunnerus Library's special collections and probably belonged to the town musician and polymath Johan Daniel Berlin (1714–87) and his circle of musicians. They provide a unique insight into how European instrumental music found fertile ground in one of Denmark–Norway's largest provincial towns in the decades preceding the union's dissolution in 1814.

Using a deep time perspective composer Henning Sommerro chooses themes from myths and from European history. Three works for soloist and orchestra and three visions encounter resistance before they struggle forward to possible redemption and resolution. The first work is Solkverv. The skald Sigvat Tordsson is on his way to the eternal city. It is just before the summer solstice, and the skald has time to reflect about important issues in his life and times – and to think about who to include in his visions. We are enticed further to Ostara, and the mysterious spring goddess of the same name.

A lot is at stake as the vernal equinox approaches. A matter of one step forward and two back. Under the ground bilateral lines of communication are busy signalling spring ... or are they? The sense of seriousness is heightened, and the last work gives the album’s title extra gravity. In Borders we move to our own time. The year is 2016, and our world picture is shaken by a stream of refugees the like of which Europe has not seen since the Second World War. Accusations across countries’ borders proliferate. It is the others who are responsible for taking in refugees, and hopes for a united response are collapsing. Who dares acknowledge and respond to the alarming roar of the work’s opening?

Our world is wounded. All around us we see the cracks. And yet the world is beautiful and blessed in so many ways. This extraordinary work begins from the Beatitudes and responds with new poetry that sheds light on who among us might be in need of blessing. These texts, ancient and new, are woven into a colorful tapestry of music inspired by a variety of traditions, highlighting the universality of the human experience. TUVAYHUN creates an opportunity for performers and listeners alike to inspire and be inspired, to be blessed, and be a blessing.

Exclusive vinyl edition: HOME can be seen both as a homage to and as a statement of belonging to northern Norway, with it's naked landscape and it's Arctic location. The title can also allude to a quest for identity, both from a personal and from an artistic perspective. All these sentiments and aspirations find expression in the music on this album. Many of the pieces here are interpretations of well known themes, while others are original compositions by Hoff. Some of the pieces are completely improvisatory. In May 2021 Morten Lindberg got in touch with me and asked if I could make a solo recording in Stormen Concert Hall in Bodø. With open minds and very few pre-conceived ideas we went ahead and, broadly speaking, took things as they came - the way we felt at the time, the actual piano and the concert hall itself determining what we recorded for two days in August that year. This album does not aim to present a particular genre, with all the expectations such a commitment might carry, but rather to give each number it's own shape and style. When you interpret text-based songs instrumentally it's best to keep a sharp focus on melody, rhythm and phrasing. By freeing the phrasing of the melody from the constraints of a fixed tempo, I can put more strength and intensity into my interpretation, and broaden and embolden the melodic material. - Jan Gunnar Hoff, 2022