Niels Lyhne Løkkegaard's Colliding Bubbles (surface tension and release) was released by Important Records earlier this year in a recording by Quatuor Bozzini not only playing stringed instruments but also playing harmonica simultaneously. Colliding Bubbles is a composition for a string and harmonica quartet. Together, the eight instruments play a subtle game of timbral and harmonic attraction and repulsion.
An upcoming performance of Løkkegaard's work is scheduled for 2 May at the Angelica Festival in Bologna, Italy. Find more information here.
Listen to the recording of Colliding Bubbles (surface tension and release) here and find selected quotes from reviews of the album below.
.....The sustained chords bowed by the quartet produce electric, shimmering lakes of sound shadowed by halos of harmonic white noise [...] Dig deep enough and time will seem to freeze over its 29 psychedelic minutes.
- (Peter Margasak, The Best Contemporary Classical Music on Bandcamp, March 2024)
"At some point, it is no longer clear exactly which instruments can be heard. Instead, a rainbow-coloured, iridescent, fluctuating drone floats in the room."
- (Initiative Neue Musik Berlin / field notes, Releases of the Month, March 2024)
"Colliding Bubbles navigates shapes and forms. It circumnavigates a globular phenomenology of tension, hold and release. It reminds us of ephemerality in the most profound and deeply moving of ways. This is Niels Lyhne Løkkegaard’s most accomplished work to date – an absolute must-have for anyone sailing the waves of sound art, contemporary composition and the terra incognita beyond."
- (Sven Schlijper-Karssenberg, Vital Weekly)