![Ensemble neoN – Niblock / Lamb (2019) [FLAC 24 bit, 48 kHz]](https://imghd.xyz/images/2023/01/10/y94ybpavlfotc_600.md.jpg)
Ensemble neoN – Niblock / Lamb (2019) [FLAC 24 bit, 48 kHz]
By choosing to combine for this recording two complementary but distinctly different drone-based, immersive pieces by the legendary veteran composer and artist/film-maker Phill Niblock (born 1933, USA), and the younger, Berlin-based composer/violist Catherine Lamb (born 1982, USA), Norway’s Ensemble neoN creates a perfect sense of aesthetic balance. Loud is followed by quiet; what seems like random patterning gives way to orderly design; and the opening instrumental ensemble-setting is transformed by the subsequent addition of guest voices. Listening to both pieces one after another is like experiencing thesis and anti-thesis through the medium of Side A and Side B.
![Benedicte Maurseth – Hárr (2022) [FLAC 24bit, 48 kHz]](https://imghd.xyz/images/2022/04/02/ta3570pm9a0xa_600.md.jpg)
Benedicte Maurseth – Hárr (2022) [FLAC 24bit, 48 kHz]
A few years ago, musician, writer and philosopher David Rothenberg invited me to join him in several musical projects involving the sounds of unique birds from around the world.
While I stayed in Berlin we also gave some live outdoor concerts, playing with nightingales in various parks late in the evening in the city. Playing with these incredible birds changed how I listened to animals in nature.
During the same period Hardanger Musikkfest, an annual festival arranged in my home region of Hardanger, commissioned new music from me for their 2019 festival.
The festival theme that year was “vandring”, a word with many different meanings such as walking, hiking or strolling. I had grown up at Maurset, in the mountains of Eidfjord municipality, close to the edge of the Hardangervidda National Park, and had gone hiking in this region throughout my life. So the festival theme felt close to my heart.