Hornflowers

HORNFLOWERS

A fruitful collaboration between composer Nils Henrik Asheim and NyNorsk Messingkvintett (Brass Quintet) has resulted in two commissions – and now an entire CD release.

The two new works, Hornflowers and Singing Stones are supplemented with three other brass works previously written by Asheim. The brass quintet joins forces with organist Anders Eidsten Dahl, harpist Sunniva Rødland, and percussionist Jennifer Torrence, who together with conductor Christian Eggen and seven extra winds on Griegs Akkord, contribute to making the album an exciting and varied experience. 

In the booklet text, Nina Nielsen writes: «Today, beauty and truth appear almost as opposites – truths are disputed and resolved, while reality can appear as anything but beautiful. The works on this release are also full of contradictions. Collected fragments, sounds, patterns, words, and dichotomies are used as building blocks, freed from the original context and strung together in surprising and powerful constellations. Through poetic compositions, Asheim examines perceptions of what is beautiful.»

Through a versatile career, Nils Henrik Asheim (b. 1960) has combined his compositional craft with work as an organist and performer, curator, and artistic and creative director. For his artistic efforts, he has won several prestigious music and culture awards, including The Nordic Council Music Prize, a Norwegian Grammy Award (Spellemann), and the Norwegian Composers’ Association’s “Work of the Year.” NyNorsk Brass Quintet is comprised of trumpeters Erlend Aagaard-Nilsen and Jørgen Arnesen, hornist Daniel Weiseth Kjellesvik, trombonist Ingebjørg Bruket, and tuba player Berger Iver Færder. The quintet focuses on new, Norwegian music and genre-crossing projects, and has since its debut in 2016 premiered as many as 26 works by composers such as Therese Birkelund Ulvo, Nils Henrik Asheim, and Marcus Paus.