It was in 2013 that the idea first came to us in the Arktisk Filharmoni to commission a large-scale orchestral work that should in some way match the character of the orchestra and serve as a signature work for us. At that time there was one composer who, in our view, stood out as someone capable of creating this sound world in which nature had such a central place – as it does in our everyday lives here in the north. That person was Lasse Thoresen.
The Sound of the Arctic is an acoustic atlas: a musical expedition that reaches as far into the Earth’s interior as it does into our minds and souls. It stands both as a multi-dimensional cultural and historical fable and as an environmental statement — with a breadth that envelops hope, beauty and nature’s untamed forces, beginning with the Arctic wind’s warning whisper, and ending with humankind’s inevitable apocalypse. This work makes one hopeful, anxious, fascinated, frightened and humble, and grateful for the Earth — irrespective of where one might live or be. La Terra Meravigliosa …
Does the Arctic have a sound? What is the sound of the Arctic?
The Sound of the Arctic was commissioned by the Arctic Philharmonic, with the intention that the music should reflect the wild variety of Norway’s northernmost regions. Its various movements are scored for different ensembles (sinfonietta, string orchestra, and full symphony orchestra), each movement designed to be playable separately or performed as a single work as it appears here.
Lasse Thoresen (b. 1949)
Lyden av Arktis (The Sound of the Arctic)
Arktisk Filharmoni/Christian Kluxen
rec. 2021, STORMEN konserthus, Bodø, Norway.
2L RECORDS 2L-169-SABD [65]
You can order your copy of the album Sound of the Arctic at 2L’s webpages.
