“Chimes of Memory” is a diverse collection of works by the Danish composer and musician Jens Wilhelm Pedersen, a.k.a. Fuzzy (b. 1939). +In the title work, recorded on an historic digital audio workstation at Danish Radio, Fuzzy gazes deep into the well of memory. +In the other works we encounter organ music written for the cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris alongside experimental and dream-like sounds played on saxophone, harp and, not least, the composer’s beloved old grand piano.

Sound-magic and continuous transformation are key elements in the music of Danish composer Niels Rosing-Schow (b. 1954). This world premiere recording by the leading French ensemble TM+ presents five of Rosing-Schow's most profound compositions, all exploring the concept of time: time as motion, as process, as imprints or mapping - and time as space.

The music of Pelle Gundmundsen-Holmgreen is at its most affecting when it is at its most absurd - like in the sinfonietta works on this recording by the composer's longtime artistic accomplice Athelas Sinfonietta Copenhagen. The points of departure for the classically absurd Gundmundsen-Holmgreen pieces on this album range from a red Skoda door, given to the composer by Athelas as a gift, over randomly picked newspaper articles to general inspiration from Samuel Beckett.

Scenatet: Fish & Fowl

The Danish Baroque theologian and poet Thomas Kingo (1634-1703) created his groundbreaking hymnals ‘Aandelige Siunge-Koor ’ to encourage the religious faith of his countrymen through domestic devotions in their native language. Today, Kingo’s hymns with their rich Baroque imagery are still at the heart of Danish communal church singing. On this release, however, Phemius Consort presents a selection of the most beautiful Kingo hymns as they were originally intended: as songs with accompaniment, here supplemented by instrumental music by closely related European composers of the period.

Olsen: Belisa

Distant Still

NORGARD: Nuit des Hommes

Danish composer Jeppe Just Christensen's music is all about recycling, nostalgia, instruments and toys. On this portrait album, curated by the chamber ensemble SCENATET, the composer himself appears with his unusual "band", Jeppe Just Instituttet, playing on self-invented, homemade or toy instruments such as egg slicer, coffee grinder, toy piano and melodica. Together, the two ensembles create a unique and delicate world of sounds, which is both the special starting point for the music and the source of it's constant fascination.

In 1840s Leipzig the young Danish composer Niels W. Gade (1817-90) was welcomed with open arms, and became Mendelssohn’s successor with the Gewandhaus Orchestra. There, Gade himself conducted the first performance of his cantata Comala, which travelled as far afield as the USA and Russia. Comala is a lyrical-heroic legend based on James Macpherson’s famous Ossian poems about the warrior Fingal and his beloved Comala, here performed by the Danish National Symphony Orchestra & Choir and an inspired team of international soloists under the renowned French conductor Laurence Equilbey. While the dramatic work was one of Gade’s biggest successes, it has largely been forgotten over the last century. This first collaboration between Equilby and the Danish National Symphony Orchestra and Choir is a perfect revival.

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REVIEW:

Together they deliver a magnificent account of this undeservedly forgotten score. Taken from live performances, there’s also a vibrancy, which turns music that in lesser hands might be ordinary fare, into a highly memorable listening experience.

– Classical Lost and Found (Bob McQuiston)

RIISAGER: Piano Works

S�ren Nils Eichberg has had an opera staged at Covent Garden and three symphonies recorded by the Danish National Symphony Orchestra. Dacapo is pleased to present a selection of the composer's piano-focused works performed by the pianist Emil Gryesten and friends, each written in the decade following Eichberg's victory at the 2001 Queen Elisabeth Competition. From the rhapsodic to the cryptic and from the joyous to the cautionary, they present a picture of one of Europe's brightest young composers in the full flow of inspiration.

Gunnar Berg’s (1909-89) music has only recently become acknowledged in earnest in his native Denmark. This premiere recording of Berg’s chamber music offers unusual instrument blends including saxophone, trumpet, bass clarinet and marimba; in addition, a mezzo-soprano sings in the major work Tøbrud from 1961: a piece whose title can now be said to have taken on symbolic meaning given the renewed interest in the composer.

ABRAHAMSEN: Stratifications / Nacht und Trompeten / Piano Co

Bruun: Letters to the Ocean