Katrine Madse

The Danish DJ, composer and producer Katrine Ring is one of the few DJs at the international level who has specialized in classical music. On this album she remixes and deconstructs a number of chamber concertos by the composer Vagn Holmboe in a musical game of hide-and-seek that breathes new life into the works in a constant play of memory and recognition. The original recordings by the Danish National Chamber Orchestra and the conductor Hannu Koivula are included as a bonus CD.

Bent Sørensen’s 12 Nocturnes comprise a collec­tion of short pieces of great expressive weight. It is wonderfully atmospheric music with a vibrating magical sound that recalls the stars at night, miles above us. Where Chopin’s iconic 19th century nocturnes are dark and full of unease, Bent Søren­sen’s music is luminous, a sounding prism for the tonal spectrum, the nocturne retransformed in the 21st century.

Possessing a smoky, somewhat soulful voice, Katrine Madsen is likely to be a new name to jazz fans in North America, though she evidently has been active on the European jazz scene for an extended period. This session starts off with interpretation of the Beatles' "I'll Keep You Satisfied" (though guitarist Ulf Wakenius' fluid licks are enjoyable) and the drippy pop original "Supernatural Love" (sung as a duet with Caecile Norby).

Bent Sorensen’s piano concerto Mignon- part of his Papillons trilogy- reveals textural beauty and melodic elegance in a language both modernist and sweetly nostalgic. The piece was written for Katrine Gislinge, one of the most significant pianists in Scandinavia, and on this premiere recording she is accompanied by Lapland Chamber Orchestra, conducted by John Storgards. A former student of Per Norgard, Bent Sorensen (b. 1958) is one of the most internationally performed Danish composers. His works have been performed at Carnegie Hall, the BBC Proms, and other notable venues across the world by ensembles like the London Sinfonietta, Ensemble InterContemporain, SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg, and more. Sorensen is a highly decorated composer, winning the Nordic Council Music Prize in 1996, the ‘International Award’ at British Composer Awards 2011, and was composer-in-residence at Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival 2011 and Trondheim Chamber Music Festival 2016. Of his previous album, Gramophone wrote: “…all-round excellence and a disc that’s unusually moving in one sitting.”

The untitled ECM double-album debut of young Norwegian saxophonist, composer and improviser Mette Henriette Martedatter Rølvåg is an arrestingly original musical statement. ‘Jazz’ players and ‘classical’ players are drawn together in her ensembles, but the music shapes its own world, outside genre definitions. Mette Henriette is interlacing form and freedom in fresh ways here, as her intense and focused tenor saxophone sound moves inside compositions of sometimes disarming fragility. In this music, vulnerability can be as potent a force as full-tilt blowing, but there is a place for both. The recording’s expressive and emotional range is wide. Disc one here features trio music with Mette Henriette, pianist Johan Lindvall and cellist Katrine Schiøtt. Disc two has Mette’s “sinfonietta” with thirteen players.