Description:	CD on Bedroom Community
	Format:	CD
	Genre(s):	Electronica / IDM
	Label:	Bedroom Community
	Price:	£12.29
	Availability:	Dispatched within 2-5 days (on average).

5
...according to our Brian on 11 February 2010.

God it is an impressive week for modern classical music. This bugger is an absolute soul stirring MONSTER from the word go! Big striding cellos speed walk down a bustling cobbled street whist violin type creatures attack passers by from the air, the amount of bravado & forcefulness in this music is remarkable. Then there's some seriously graceful & melancholic passages to temper the palpable sense of drama. This Icelandic master has famously worked with Sigur Ros and is the co-founder and chief conductor of the Isafold Chamber Orchestra. His two centrepieces here hover around the 10-12 minute mark, both powerful, full blooded movements. Sounding profoundly moving & unpredictable throughout, this soaring & giddy epic is reminiscent of old Slavic concerto and it shows in its breathtaking dramatic flourishes & abrupt mood changes. This is where my heart lies: grand contemporary orchestration like this blows the pomposity & stuffiness of many old, established "classics" into a dusty black hole where they probably belong. Truly remarkable.

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Sound clips for Processions by Daniel Bjarnason: on CD at Norman Records UK. CD, Bedroom Community, HVALUR7CD, £12.29.

What their label says...

* The debut album from the latest signing to esteemed Icelandic label Bedroom Community whose roster includes Ben Frost, Sam Amidon, Nico Muhly and Valgeir Sigurethsson.

* Daniel has contemporary classical appeal as well as mass indie appeal having previously worked with Ólöf Arnalds, Hjaltalín and,most famously, Sigur Rós, collaborating with that band at theirAbbey Road sessions with the London Sinfonietta.

* Daniel is the co-founder and chief conductor of the Isafold Chamber Orchestra and his other conducting engagements have included regular performances at the helm of the Icelandic Opera and the Iceland Symphony Orchestra.

* Blurring the line between electronic and chamber music—a familiar style for the Icelandic Bedroom Community collective—the constructions of this recording’s emotional triggers are wholly unique. In Daníel Bjarnason’s Processions, the composer marshals all the technical forces at his disposal to accomplish a musical goal rather than an ideological statement.

* Processions, Bjarnason’s second concerto written for pianist Víkingur Ólafsson, performs a similar balancing act of self-consciousness versus earnest appeal in both its genre and harmonies. True to the archetype of the concerto form, Processions begins with an extravagant statement; a statement Bjarnason takes to new heights in his thunderous exposition “In Medias Res.” Its subsequent development recalls a traditional Slavic concerto, remarkable for its virtuosic elements and deeply earnest melodies. The propulsive rhythms of the last movement (“Red-Handed”), like the syncopations in Bow to String, project a certain quasi-primitive energy reminiscent of electronic or rock music.

* “Skelja”, a darker, more introspective score for harp and percussion, in a sense suggests what might remain behind if the comforts of form and more overt forms of expression were somehow extracted from Bow to String and Processions.
The dense texture of the electronic cello choir and the massed resources of the orchestra are replaced with the strict economy of a plucked and e-bowed harp. But even here, glimpsed in the harp’s obscurity and the percussion’s subtle halos of colour, the style of the composer, now introverted, persists.

* TRACKLIST: 01 Bow to String I: "Sorrow conquers happiness" 02 Bow to String II: Blood to Bones 03 Bow to String III: Air to Breath 04 Processions i: In Medias Res 05 Processions II: Spindrift 06 Processions III: Red-handed 07 Skelja