JESPER NORDIN (b. 1971): Röster (Voices), trilogy for orchestra - Åkallan (Invocation) (2013), Ärr (Scar) (2014)! Öde (Fate/Deserted) (2015). Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Daniel Harding conductor. 3rd Retrospective (2019), for 5-string electric violin, string orchestra and live electronics. Musica Vitae, Malin Broman, 5-string electric violin and artistic direction, Jesper Nordin, electronics.

Description: Leading Swedish composer Jesper Nordin’s soundscape lies at the crossroads of Swedish traditional music, rock and improvised music. On this recording, Daniel Harding and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra perform Röster (‘voices’), a trilogy whose works are each based on different kinds of Swedish music which the composer sees as being part of his background. In Åkallan (‘Invocation’), Nordin has used the traditional vocal technique called kulning as his starting point. Extreme metal rock (through the band Meshuggah) provided the material for Ärr (‘Scar’) and the result is an explosive rhythmic scream that has seldom been heard in Classical music. Finally, Öde (‘Fate’ or ‘Deserted’) incorporates recordings by the legendary Swedish opera singers Birgit Nilsson and Jussi Björling in an electronic part which interacts with the orchestra. Performed by violinist Malin Broman and the ensemble Musica Vitae, 3rd Retrospective belongs to a series of works in which Nordin looks back on his own music in various ways. Here, he goes back to the music of his childhood, written and played on the violin by his father. More specifically, he uses a tune from a play written by Nordin’s father, namely a polska, a traditional dance whose origins are to be found in Poland. Of Nordin's Emerging from Currents and Waves for Clarinet, Orchestra and Live Electronics. (06X054), we said: "This vast, hugely ambitious work combines the resources of the full orchestra with an extraordinarily versatile and computationally powerful computer program developed by the composer, capable of sampling, transforming, combining and projecting sounds in real time, controlled by the physical or musical gestures of conductor and soloist." These works draw from a similarly broad and original timbral palette, and are equally sonically impressive, while remaining accessible.