Bára Gísladóttir's SILVA is a work for processed double bass built on the idea of a downward growing forest, living its own secret life of underground raves and meditative cohesiveness. The album was released at Sono Luminus on 26 January, and the composer tells about the work:
"I like to think of different movement and direction in the musical form and was intrigued by the thought of something that would otherwise naturally grow upwards, in reach for light and surrounded by air, rather being drawn in the opposite direction where darkness and solid form serve as the source of gleaming luminosity and breezy surroundings. Both in my compositional and instrumentalist work, in every nook and cranny, I’ve been driven to dig as deep as I’ve been able, with SILVA perhaps quite literally so. Although growing up in classical music and predominantly working and living in an environment of classical contemporary/avant-garde music, I’ve been very much into other genres as well; alternative, experimental, heavy metal, noise, drone, techno, and electronica, and I believe SILVA is the byproduct of all of that."
Find the album here.
The album has received words of praise from the Danish web magazine Seismograf, stating that:
"I don't recall hearing Bára Gísladóttir better than this: so focused and yet devoted, free; and in a surprising recording that captures the tonal richness of the depths. "
Read the full review here.
And the contemporary music blog The Moderns suggests: "We may already have heard the best album of 2023."
Read the full review here.