"A fever dream of textures and timbres, the work melts through clanging, alarm-like metallic percussion, brass players whistling through their mouthpieces, rushes of roughly textured air, throbbing wide string vibrato, and swipes along the piano strings using a glove adorned with dozens of tiny bells." With these words, the American online journal I Care if You Listen portrays DÆGRIN, hailing Bára Gísladóttir as "the superstar of this year’s festival."
Danish music magazine Seismograf noted that "Of course, the darkness was massive in her new work – deep, vibrating undercurrents – but there were new elements too: the Iceland Symphony Orchestra unfolded a more spacious, panoramic sound field than in her earlier, more compressed works."
Meanwhile, The Reykjavík Grapevine writes that DÆGRIN "quietly crawls under the skin. With hissing percussion that almost sounds like sandpaper, the piece is moving with constant direction. Different musical elements arise, as if objects are found and excavated from a moving, muddy ground. In a pivotal moment, the violin section slowly dies out and only what sounds like faint pulses of electricity remain in the air."
In the programme note, Gisladóttir herself describes DÆGRIN as "a landscape of dreams and fluttering thoughts. [...] Always hinging on the abstract, we go through passages depicting the gasping for thin air, bustling textures, slow motion scenarios, the deep within, a lack/overload of sorrow, hyper focused roller coaster rides that simultaneously are, lets face it, the absolute mayhem of boundless restlessness, cusp cuts, stillness, cusp shuts, a sudden oasis in (perhaps) a desert, a quick rush up the man flu mountain - not deserving our time - an escape route offered by a wee bridge, back to what was to be said: Dægrin löng og ströng."
Time and place
Bára Gísladóttir: DÆGRIN
Thursday 5 March, 19:00
Odense Symphony Orchestra & Pierre Bleuse
Carl Nielsen Salen, Odense Koncerthus (DK)
Find more information about the concert here.