ARCHORA / AIŌN, by Anna Thorvaldsdottir, Iceland Symphony Orchestra, Eva Ollikainen

ARCHORA / AIŌN

by Anna Thorvaldsdottir, Iceland Symphony Orchestra, Eva Ollikainen

supported by

herman pett THis is an album I just let wash over me.

framea This album is the first for a very long time that has managed to make the hairs on the back of my neck stand up!! The more I listen to it the more I find within it. It is simply an extraordinary and mature piece of work.

jiristepan Someday, when books are written about the work of Anna Þorvaldsdóttir, the time flow in her music will have to be given a major chapter, in addition to all the metaphysical depth and all the cosmic distress. An incredible narrative weight.

more...

	/

Streaming + Download

Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

Purchasable with gift card

$7 USD or more
Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album
1 Compact disc and 1 Blu-ray disc in a plastic jewel case.

Includes unlimited streaming of ARCHORA / AIŌN via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

ships out within 7 days

$19.99 USD or more

	1.	ARCHORA 20:51
	2.	AIŌN I. Morphosis 13:15
	3.	AIŌN II. Transcension 16:48
	4.	AIŌN III. Entropia 10:53

about

The core inspiration behind ARCHORA centres around the notion of a primordial energy and the idea of an omnipresent parallel realm – a world both familiar and strange, static and transforming, nowhere and everywhere at the same time. The piece revolves around the extremes on the spectrum between the Primordia and its resulting afterglow – and the conflict between these elements that are nevertheless fundamentally one and the same. The halo emerges from the Primordia but they have both lost perspective and the connection to one another, experiencing themselves individually as opposing forces rather than one and the same.

AIŌN is inspired by the abstract metaphor of being able to move freely in time, of being able to explore time as a space that you inhabit rather than experiencing it as a one-directional journey through a single dimension. Disorienting at first, you realize that time extends simultaneously in all directions and whenever you feel like it, you can access any moment. As you learn to control the journey, you find that the experience becomes different by taking different perspectives - you can see every moment at once, focus on just some of them, or go there to experience them. You are constantly zooming in and out, both in dimension and perspective. Some moments you want to visit more than others, noticing as you revisit the same moment, how your perception of it changes. This metaphor is connected to a number of broader background ideas in relation to the work: How we relate to our lives, to the ecosystem, and to our place in the broader scheme of things, and how at any given moment we are connected both to the past and to the future, not just of our own lives but across - and beyond - generations.

As with my music generally, the inspiration behind ARCHORA and AIŌN is not something I am trying to describe through the music or what the music is “about”, as such. Inspiration is a way to intuitively tap into parts of the core energy, structure, atmosphere and material of the music I am writing each time. It is a fuel for the musical ideas to come into existence, a tool to approach and work with the fundamental materials, the ideas and sensations, that provide and generate the initial spark to the music - the various sources of inspiration are ultimately effective because I perceive qualities in them that I find musically captivating. I do often spend quite a bit of time finding ways to articulate some of the important elements of the musical ideas or thoughts that play certain key roles in the origin of each piece but the music itself does not emerge from a verbal place, it emerges as a stream of consciousness that flows, is felt, sensed, shaped and then crafted. So inspiration is a part of the origin story of a piece, but in the end the music stands on its own.

- Anna Thorvaldsdottir

credits

released May 26, 2023

Producer: Ragnheiður Jónsdóttir
Recording, Mixing & Mastering Engineer: Daniel Shores
Surround/Atmos Mastering Engineer: Morten Lindberg
Editing Engineer: Ragnheiður Jónsdóttir
Assistant Engineer: Joshua Frey
Photography: Cover Front/Back - Hrafn Asgeirsson; p. 4 - Anna Maggý; pp. 7/8 - Joshua Frey; pp. 17/18 - Collin J. Rae; p. 20 - Nikolaj Lund; pp. 23/24 - Ari Magg
Graphic Design: Joshua Frey
Liner Notes: Doyle Armbrust
Executive Producer: Collin J. Rae
Blu-ray Production: Stefan Bock
Blu-ray Authoring: Michael T. Hoffmann, msm-studios

Recorded at Harpa Concert Hall, Reykjavík, Iceland
Norðurljós Recital Hall, October 17-20, 2022
Conductor: Eva Ollikainen
Concertmaster: Alexander Kagan

license

about

Sono Luminus Boyce, Virginia

We’re a classical record label and acoustic music recording studio located 70 miles west of Washington, DC.
We specialize in ultra-high fidelity stereo and surround recordings.

contact / help

Contact Sono Luminus

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this album or account

If you like ARCHORA / AIŌN, you may also like:

Orange
by Caroline Shaw & Attacca Quartet

supported by 27 fans who also own “ARCHORA / AIŌN”

Beautiful! I love the wanderings to unexpected places in this garden. Stephen Crawford
go to album
Julius Eastman Vol. 1: Femenine
by Wild Up

supported by 26 fans who also own “ARCHORA / AIŌN”

This is one of the most exciting cds I've heard in ages and I feel LUCKY to have discovered Wild Up and their recordings of Julius Eastman. Wow!! jamesaarons
go to album
Evergreen
by Caroline Shaw & Attacca Quartet

supported by 26 fans who also own “ARCHORA / AIŌN”

I saw them perform for free in Bryant Park in NYC; I had no idea who they were; boy was I pleased. By the way, Attacca is a musical term that means to literally attack a note. dlummox
go to album
Landvættirnar fjórar
by Guðmundur Steinn Gunnarsson

Icelandic composer Gudmundur Steinn Gunnarsson builds playful, experimental motifs around 13th-century mythological creatures. Bandcamp New & Notable Nov 8, 2022
go to album
Through Lines
by Molly Herron

A beautiful and unique record of compositions for the viola de gamba, a Renaissance instrument most popular in the 16th and 17th centuries. Bandcamp New & Notable Aug 12, 2021
go to album
Isolario
by Dario Calderone

A cycle of 9 duets, “Isolario” is by turns intricate, sparse, mysterious, and moving. Bandcamp New & Notable Aug 5, 2023
go to album
Does Spring Hide Its Joy
by Kali Malone (featuring Stephen O’Malley & Lucy Railton)

supported by 26 fans who also own “ARCHORA / AIŌN”

music. silence. Gold. Ganondorofu
go to album