Hidden Souls of the Fjords

According to its creators, Hidden Soul of the Fjords is intended to be an “elemental soundscape” revealing the realities and myths of the fjords that dominate the Norwegian west coast. As a sound engineer, director, multi-instrumentalist and composer, Lazerus Winter has become a specialist in immersive sound environments, virtual reality, and augmented reality for the general public. With this, he’s attempting a bolder project, a vast musical fresco typical of new compositional processes. The melodies expressed by the soloist Heidi Torsvik and the feminine choral songs are both modern and romantic, mostly consonant. Anyone following music has already spotted them in one work or another, especially on Hollywood soundtracks. The songs are spread over four movements, yet they are part of a sophisticated approach in which electronics play an important role in the instrumentation, especially in the orchestral layers, where the sections of the large orchestras are replaced by synthetic frequencies. This ambitious electro-orchestral proposal is inspired by post-minimalism in the European style (Pärt, Gorecki, etc.) and involves excellent live performers – Karl Seglem (tenor saxophone and bukkehorn), Stein Urheim (electric guitar), Benedicte Maurseth (violin), Alexander Grieg (double bass), David Chelsom Vogt (violin), and Ivar Thormodsæter (drums). Elements of folk-pop, trip hop, ambient, krautrock, electro-rock or even jazz may also come into play. In short, a consensual patchwork, a collage of references that are certainly pre-digested, but nonetheless strewn with moments of audacity.