Simon Steen-Andersen is internationally recognised for his playful and uncompromising compositions, such as TRIO (2019) and Piano Concerto (2014) and recently the critically acclaimed opera Don Giovanni's Inferno (2023).
Now Dacapo Records is releasing a new album featuring Oslo Sinfonietta and conductor Rei Munakata, offering a retrospective insight into the musical roots that that have shaped Simon Steen-Andersen's bold compositional style. Through four early works we trace the origins of a composer constantly redefining contemporary music. The album will be released on CD and streaming on 30 May. Pre-save the album here.
'Chambered' sounds
For the title work Chambered Music, Simon Steen-Andersen collected dozens of ideas for how music or sound could be ‘chambered’, such as jam jars, metronomes placed within soundproof boxes and samples recorded from the inside of a piano. Steen-Andersen further placed a solo trombone far offstage so we can barely hear it to represent the idea of incarceration and the stifling of speech.
In Praesens (‘Presence’) from 2001 we hear an early example of Simon Steen-Andersen's signature use of sounds which highlight the physical energies behind individual musical gestures, including sheets of paper rubbed against cardboard and a credit card strummed across the piano keyboard. The result is a raw, captivating experience of unusual textures and physicality, which defies conventional harmony.
Changing the meaning of familiar things
Common to the works on the album is Simon Steen-Andersen's playful approach to alienating the familiar, an idea last seen in the opera Don Giovanni's Inferno, which remixes three centuries of operatic history: ‘I’m more and more fascinated’, the composer says, ‘by the idea of changing the perspective and meaning of familiar things by placing them upside down or changing their context’.
The album also includes the world premiere recording of Besides from 2003 and with these interpretations by contemporary music specialists Oslo Sinfonietta and conductor Rei Munakata, the release paints an early portrait of a composer who has captivated stages around the world.