Musicians are increasingly playing on the spherical. Chord progressions are thrown overboard and intrinsic sound clouds take their place. This music is difficult to describe or define unambiguously. It challenges our concept of what we traditionally expect from (classical) music. It is difficult to place in just one category. There is no musical progression and the material used is minimal. Yet it is not pure minimalism like the music of Steve Reich or Terry Riley. Like an undulating sound cloud, this music floats in a grey zone between other genres…
The album Komorebi by Trio Peltomaa Fraanje Perkola was merely one example of this. Many similar albums and artists experiment with a similar sound world. Not all of them are equally successful. What distinguishes a well-composed sound cloud of timbres with sounds that know how to fill time and space from sounds that only leave an empty feeling?
Again, the answer is difficult to define. With Trio Peltomaa Fraanje Perkola, I would attribute it to the concept where medieval chants blend with Finnish folk music. The basic material may no longer be recognizable, but the music gains a unique character through it. Yet it is not always the underlying concept that carries the successful factor. Below are two albums that each in their own way transcend this new genre.
For their sound paintings, Nils Økland and Sigbjørn Apeland nowadays use less common instruments. Økland introduces the hardingfele (a Norwegian string instrument) and Apeland reintroduces the harmonium or treadle organ. The album Glimmer gains a special "soundscape" simply through these forgotten instruments. The ear must get used to the unprecedented sonority.
The harmonium opens the album quietly. Like slowly undulating water, the music comes to life. Once the meditative sounds have found their place in space, the fiddle introduces the melody. This melody returns repeatedly in Skynd Deg, Skynd Deg [track 01]. With an improvisatory character, Sigbjørn Apeland explores the options. All subsequent tracks share the same serene atmosphere that brings inner peace. From the title track Glimmer [track 05] to the final piece Nu Solen Går Ned [track 15]. Track after track, serene Norwegian landscapes glide by and the whole is both fascinating and calming, like a shimmer on the water's surface.
In contrast, Büşra Kayıkçı uses a very familiar instrument: the piano. Following her debut album Eskizler (or Sketches in English) comes now Places under Warner Classics. The piano may be a familiar starting point, but Kayıkçı's "soundscape" has a unique character. If I had to summarize her music in keywords, I would choose: delicate, pure and spatial.
Delicate and pure. But not calm and serene, like Glimmer. Places has moments of temporary unrest. Carefully chosen sounds at equally carefully chosen volume levels fill the space with intrigue but also with a certain tension. Like sounds that occasionally collide with each other and then resonate in synergy again. The silences are masterfully chosen. Sometimes you feel the tension hanging in the space while at other moments it simply offers peace.
In a dozen short character pieces, Kayıkçı creates different sound worlds with always the same building blocks. The foundation of her musical language recurs repeatedly, each time infused with different influences. In works like Olive Tree [track 05] or L'inno [track 09], Satie-esque echoes emerge where the listener floats on a minimalist "sound carpet". In the opening work The Middle Of… [track 01], her Ottoman heritage is appropriately audible, and Into The Woods [track 10] in turn resembles Debussy's ingrained lyricism and harmonic sound paintings. The result is both timeless and atmospheric: an album that is not easily categorized.