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Sono Luminus

The Grotesque & The Sublime

$19.99

Details

Composer
Daniel Bjarnason
Artist
Iceland Symphony Orchestra, Frank Dupree, Vivi Vassileva
Format
Blu-Ray + CD
Label
Sono Luminus
Released
Feb 27, 2026
Catalog #
DSL-92287
UPC
053479228703

About

Daníel Bjarnason is a hub-like figure in the group of composers who could be said to constitute a First Icelandic School. But he also stands slightly apart from his peers. As the nation's foremost conductor, he has premiered and recorded works by it's central protagonists including Jóhann Jóhannsson, Anna Thorvaldsdottir, María Huld Markan Sigfúsdóttir and others (notably on the Sono Luminus series Emergence, Recurrence and Occurrence). But Bjarnason's own music has long sprawled beyond the borders of the school's distinct aesthetic and incorporated non-abstract forms such as opera, dance and film scores. While some Icelandic orchestral music enacts a gradual transformation on a vaporous orchestra, akin to the shifting shape and colour of a North Atlantic cloud, Bjarnason's formative orchestral works often cleave to a solid, defined musical object which might be distorted or obscured before emerging again intact. His music has never shied away from the slow, drone-lagged music of Icelandic archetype but it has also used more varied tempi and more urgent rhythmic profiles. It has also deployed different time scales in parallel - notably in works such as Emergence and From Space I Saw the Earth, in which planes of music operating at different speeds momentarily sync. This brings to his music a sense of what the late Danish composer Per Nørgård described as 'the timeless forces of existence - nature in the broadest sense.' Those works had their roots in breakthrough concertos for cello and piano, Bow to String and Processions, both of which thrive on the process of expanding strong, fertile material by zooming deep in or stretching wide out - a more thematic, less spectral approach than that of Icelandic fashion but one that still sees Bjarnason reveling in the properties of sound itself. - Andrew Mellor

Tracklist 11 tracks

  1. 1 I. a voluptuous scene that masquerade 04:35
    Track
    1
    Title
    I. a voluptuous scene that masquerade
    Duration
    04:35
    Composer
    Daníel Bjarnason
    Performer
    Frank Dupree
    Ensemble
    Iceland Symphony Orchestra
    Conductor
    Daníel Bjarnason
  2. 2 II. the presence of a masked figure 04:14
    Track
    2
    Title
    II. the presence of a masked figure
    Duration
    04:14
    Composer
    Daníel Bjarnason
    Performer
    Frank Dupree
    Ensemble
    Iceland Symphony Orchestra
    Conductor
    Daníel Bjarnason
  3. 3 III. the brazen lungs of the clock 02:19
    Track
    3
    Title
    III. the brazen lungs of the clock
    Duration
    02:19
    Composer
    Daníel Bjarnason
    Performer
    Frank Dupree
    Ensemble
    Iceland Symphony Orchestra
    Conductor
    Daníel Bjarnason
  4. 4 IV. dance of the mummer 03:22
    Track
    4
    Title
    IV. dance of the mummer
    Duration
    03:22
    Composer
    Daníel Bjarnason
    Performer
    Frank Dupree
    Ensemble
    Iceland Symphony Orchestra
    Conductor
    Daníel Bjarnason
  5. 5 V. the revelation 03:18
    Track
    5
    Title
    V. the revelation
    Duration
    03:18
    Composer
    Daníel Bjarnason
    Performer
    Frank Dupree
    Ensemble
    Iceland Symphony Orchestra
    Conductor
    Daníel Bjarnason
  6. 6 VI. one by one dropped the revellers (danse macabre) 06:07
    Track
    6
    Title
    VI. one by one dropped the revellers (danse macabre)
    Duration
    06:07
    Composer
    Daníel Bjarnason
    Performer
    Frank Dupree
    Ensemble
    Iceland Symphony Orchestra
    Conductor
    Daníel Bjarnason
  7. 7 VII. dominion over all (skeleton procession) 01:36
    Track
    7
    Title
    VII. dominion over all (skeleton procession)
    Duration
    01:36
    Composer
    Daníel Bjarnason
    Performer
    Frank Dupree
    Ensemble
    Iceland Symphony Orchestra
    Conductor
    Daníel Bjarnason
  8. 8 Fragile Hope 14:17
    Track
    8
    Title
    Fragile Hope
    Duration
    14:17
    Composer
    Daníel Bjarnason
    Ensemble
    Iceland Symphony Orchestra
    Conductor
    Daníel Bjarnason
  9. 9 I. The Bells 13:53
    Track
    9
    Title
    I. The Bells
    Duration
    13:53
    Composer
    Daníel Bjarnason
    Performer
    Vivi Vassileva
    Ensemble
    Iceland Symphony Orchestra
    Conductor
    Daníel Bjarnason
  10. 10 II. A Passage 06:08
    Track
    10
    Title
    II. A Passage
    Duration
    06:08
    Composer
    Daníel Bjarnason
    Performer
    Vivi Vassileva
    Ensemble
    Iceland Symphony Orchestra
    Conductor
    Daníel Bjarnason
  11. 11 III. Dark Shores 10:53
    Track
    11
    Title
    III. Dark Shores
    Duration
    10:53
    Composer
    Daníel Bjarnason
    Performer
    Vivi Vassileva
    Ensemble
    Iceland Symphony Orchestra
    Conductor
    Daníel Bjarnason