Forsvarets stabsmusikkorps, Schola Cantorum – Ja, vi elsker (2014) [FLAC 24 bit, 192 kHz]

Forsvarets stabsmusikkorps, Schola Cantorum – Ja, vi elsker (2014) [FLAC 24 bit, 192 kHz]

This music has been specially chosen to celebrate the 200th anniversary in 2014 of the Norwegian Constitution. As well as being compelling in its own right, the works featured here serve as a musical history book, offering an insight into parts of the Norwegian saga. Several songs are clear examples of how a “national song” can be a way of marking and remembering the nation’s history. In this recording we give the national anthem in its complete form, something that is seldom done, and, through many fresh arrangements of familiar melodies and a splendid “outdoor” sound, offer a new and invigorating listening experience.

Cantus Tove Ramlo-Ystad – Yggdrasil (2022) [FLAC 24 bit, 176,4 kHz]

Cantus Tove Ramlo-Ystad – Yggdrasil (2022) [FLAC 24 bit, 176,4 kHz]

The Yggdrasil is the world tree in Norse mythology, and our Yggdrasil musical project started as the idea of reaching out to composers from near and far, as if travelling along the branches of the tree, and it embraced the concept of gathering around the tree as a common theme. We envisioned the richness and complexity of Yggdrasil as giving these composers the freedom to fill their compositions with ideas, reflections, stories and references connected to “world trees” – however they might interpret this – from their own lives. We hoped this would generate wide diversity in musical expression and content. We spread this process over several years. That way, it would constantly provide us with new musical challenges and new inspiration, and give us new timbres, sounds and chords – we then had the task of figuring out how to make them our own. We were also fortunate to meet and collaborate with most of the composers along the way, receiving a greater understanding of their music and the stories behind it.

Arktisk Filharmoni, Christian Kluxen – Lasse Thoresen: Lyden av Arktis (The Sound of the Arctic) (2022) [FLAC 24 bit, 176,4 kHz]

Arktisk Filharmoni, Christian Kluxen – Lasse Thoresen: Lyden av Arktis (The Sound of the Arctic) (2022) [FLAC 24 bit, 176,4 kHz]

A daring polar expedition in sound to discover the beauty and terror of a disappearing wilderness.

The polar regions supply some of the planet’s most stunning landscapes, as well as the most startling images of climate crisis. Opening Ultima 2019 at Oslo’s Konserthuset, Lasse Thoresen’s monumental 80 minute multimedia orchestral work Lyden av Arktis (The Sound of the Arctic), written specifically for the Arktisk Filharmoni (Arctic Philharharmonic), is inspired by his travels around the white-out landscapes of Svalbard and Finnmark, and incorporates the visual archives of Tromsø Museum and Norway’s Polar Institute.