Adkins Sundin Hedman Arvik Glass Feathers Petterson Axelsson - HCR38CD - Contemporain

Paulina Sundin, Monty Adkins, Jens Hedman, and Ylva Q Arkvik have crafted works of intricate and varied beauty, drawing on virtuosic performances by the Stockholm Saxophone Quartet's alto saxophonist Jorgen Pettersson and renowned percussionist Jonny Axelsson to create an album that expertly blends the acoustic with the electronic. Sundin and Adkins collaborate on the four-part composition Glass Feathers. Each movement comprises a section of an imaginary rite, as the alto saxophone performs pitch materials which are stretched, expanded, and refracted. Meanwhile, the electronics act in the manner of a Greek chorus, providing commentary or a musical mirroring of the virtuosic solo alto saxophone. The result is an evocative and compelling work blending instrumental virtuosity with immersive ambient textures. Movement, an electroacoustic work by Sundin and Hedman, originates from sound recordings of ethnic instruments stored at the Swedish Music Museum. These fragile, instruments are not ordinarily displayed to the public, but Movement allows them to be heard as they never have before. Their unique timbres are amplified and augmented, evoking a haunting soundscape of an unheard past. Finally, Humlegangar (which translates as 'bumble bees') is named after one of its constituent electronic sounds, created from recordings of the alto saxophone and various percussion instruments. Composed by Sundin and Arkvik, and performed by Pettersson and Axelsson, the work combines the extremes of Arkvik's instrumental writing and the refinement of Sundin's electroacoustic soundworld. We hear resonant percussion timbrally extended by electronic processing, contrasting with pulsating rhythmic passages. Undertaking an extended journey between quiet, tentative materials and intensely dramatic passages, Humlegangar finds moments of fragile stability amongst passages of disruption.