ARCHORA / AION (2023)

ANNA THORVALDSDOTTIR

Bandcamp / Apple / Amazon / Spotify

ARCHORA / AION was among the year’s top classical albums at the New York Times and at the Boston Globe

Tracks

1. ARCHORA
2. AION - Morphosis
3. AION - Transcension
4. AION - Entropia

Performed by the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Eva Ollikainen

Sono Luminus album page (click here)

Producer: Ragnheiður Jónsdóttir
Recording, Mixing & Mastering Engineer: Daniel Shores
Surround/Atmos Mastering Engineer: Morten Lindberg
Editing Engineer: Ragnheiður Jónsdóttir
Assistant Engineer: Joshua Frey
Cover Image: Hrafn Asgeirsson

Recorded at Harpa Concert Hall, Reykjavík, Iceland in October 2022
Conductor: Eva Ollikainen
Concertmaster: Alexander Kagan

“Thorvaldsdottir’s music partakes of deep, primordial textures and a mysterious sense of structure and flow. In these two darkly spacious, beautifully played pieces, she unlocks an entirely new world of undulating sounds, as if tectonic plates of an alien planet were shifting against one another. Each work is rigorously planned, yet the structures remain elusive so that when major events unfold — such as the surprisingly radiant ending of “AIŌN” — the effect is almost overwhelming.” - David Weininger, Boston Globe

“The Icelandic composer Anna Thorvaldsdottir has long been associated with evocations of the earth and tectonic forces. Here, especially in the symphony-length “Aion,” her preoccupation is still ecological, but in an abstract, grander sense that surveys immense textures and forms from ever-shifting scales of time and space. Feel small yet?" - Joshua Barone, NY Times

“Among the many wonders of Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s music — exquisitely honed timbres, an intricate play of shadow and light — perhaps the most mysterious is the way it can sound so static yet be in a state of constant (if sometimes glacial) change. Take “ARCHORA,” the first of two spacious orchestral works on this welcome new release. It opens with a D flat in the low strings, winds and brass, a tenebrous and flatly final sound incapable of being dislodged by the thwacks and thumps surrounding it. Soon, though, a series of downward-sliding melodies in the violins begins to tug the music away; the pedal point returns, but feels slightly less fixed. By the time a long, deeply lyrical line unfolds about halfway through, the music is in a different world, even as you’re not quite sure how it left the old one.

This craftsmanship — a meticulous fusion of pacing, structure and coloring — is also at work in the three-movement “AION,” although the canvas is larger, and the mood less uniform. There is a stronger sense of direction: moments of stillness repeatedly disrupted by violent outbursts, as if the piece were evoking the weather system on some alien planet. The triumphant conclusion, again in D flat, seems both logical and a shock. Both pieces confirm the impression that Thorvaldsdottir is incapable of writing music that doesn’t immediately transfix an open-eared listener. The Iceland Symphony Orchestra and Eva Ollikainen, its chief conductor, offer glowing performances that have been beautifully captured by Sono Luminus.” - David Weininger, NY Times