Palsson / Olafsson / Bjarnason

Concurrence Palsson / Olafsson / Bjarnason

Can you hear a country in its music? I posed that question only a few years ago, while contemplating the five recent orchestral works by leading young Icelandic

composers that comprised Recurrence, the previous volume of this invaluable, illuminating Sono Luminus series. Pondering those pieces with a visit to Iceland still vivid in my mind's eye, I likened aspects of the music at hand to elements of land and sky, climate and atmosphere--an approach not without merit, but surely not the sole dimension worth contemplating.

Two of the composers featured on that previous CD are also present in this second collection, Concurrence. Hearing Anna Thorvaldsdottir's Metacosmos and María

Huld Markan Sigfúsdóttir's Oceans in close proximity, it's hard not to consider once more the natural features of Iceland. But before you decide to approach these

disparate works as paintings in sound, listen again for aspects that distinctly evoke more human dimensions.