Bára Gísladóttir considers sounds, instruments and ensembles as living organisms. In COR, Hringlaand VAPE, the Icelandic composer and double bassist engages with the largest musical organism of all: the symphony orchestra.
On 17 May a new album will be released by Dacapo Records, recorded by the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, conductor Eva Ollikainen and Gísladóttir herself. In these world premiere recordings we follow Gísladóttir’s fascination with language and coincidence; we hear an uncompromising interrogation of the body’s excesses and ailments; and, most of all, we see life, vaporous and between states, neither dark nor light.
Sounds as living organisms
Bára Gísladóttir has long since established herself as one of the most sought-after composers of her generation. Her works have been performed by the WDR Sinfonieorchester and Ensemble Intercontemporain among others, and as a double bassist, she often appears in performances of her own music. The international attention will only grow when she receives the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation Composer Prize on 18 May.
Inspired equally by death metal or techno as by Scelsi or Penderecki, her music explores extremes of noise and dynamic, often cut through with a dark sense of humour. Even though her music appears troubled to our ears at first, this is only part of its story. More importantly is her conception of sounds, instruments and ensembles as living organisms, which after all containig the potential for both comic excess, vitality and self-annihilation.
Improvisation and electronic projections
Bára Gísladóttir draws no distinction between improvisation and composition – to her, one is simply a form of the other. We hear this in the work COR among others, which climaxes in a ‘mad percussion solo’, notated simply as a dense black block as the only instruction for the musicians. COR was recently named Work of the Year at the Icelandic Music Awards.
Hringla features Gísladóttir herself as an improvising double bass soloist with electronic projections derived from her bass. The work’s Icelandic title has a range of meanings, from the rattle or tinkle of metallic objects to a wobbling hesitancy or indecision, and this duality of flutter and focus is the essential dynamic of Hringla.
VAPE was composed for the Danish National Symphony Orchestra and was premiered in 2017. Although she revised it in 2020, she still regards it as an early work. The composer’s prompt for the piece was reading about the Tokyo sarin gas attacks of 1995, particularly as described by Haruki Murakami. Gísladóttir explains that the idea was to deal with violence as a theme objectively and without fear, rather than the details of the attacks themselves.
Exclusive special edition
The new album will be released as an exclusive hardback book with an inserted CD. In the book you'll find an essay by the British music critic and author Tim Rutherford-Johnson in both Danish, English and German, biographies about the performers and photos from the recording session. This release is available in Dolby Atmos® through a range of streaming platforms. Pre-save the album to your streaming library.