New Releases: Discovering Nordic Soundscapes

This month we are delving into new Nordic soundscapes with 2l Recordings. The Norwegian label is releasing two new albums on Pure Audio Blu-Ray. The first is ‘Veneliti’ by Oslo Kammerkor. In 2017 2l founder and engineer Morten Lindberg recorded it with the chamber choir in the sacral atmosphere of Ris Church. The second album is ‘Trachea’ by the Oslo Schola Cantorum which has been recorded between 2014 and 2018 in Uranienborg Church. On Pure Audio Blu-Ray listeners will enter a new dimension in sound and welcome the choirs in their living room.

Both releases will be available in our store soon.

Photo by Morten Lindberg

Oslo Kammerkor - Veneliti

oslo-kammerkor-veneliti_front

On ‘Veneliti’ composer Ørjan Matre and the Oslo Kammerkor take us on an exploration of Norwegian folk music. The songs range from fervent hymns to mystical legends and bittersweet love songs. Matre has tried to find the core identity of the songs by listening to older recordings and versions. For ‘Veneliti’ the Kammerkor has specifically practised traditional singing and by doing this acquired an ‘ownership’ of songs and lyrics. During the live recording conductor Håkon Daniel Nystedt has managed to put an emphasis on every single voice of the choir and has therefore created a unique closeness to the songs.  

Recorded in immersive audio the listener feels like an actual part of the choir. The special atmosphere of Ris Church in Oslo is delivered right onto the home speakers. With an Auro 3-D and Dolby Atmos mix Pure Audio Blu-ray enables a sound experience that highlights every single sound feature of the choir.

You can find the album in our store this August.

Schola Cantorum - Trachea

schola-cantorum-trachea_front

On ‘Trachea’ the Oslo Schola Cantorum takes listeners on a journey with six stages. Six stages that are each unique but however share something fundamental: it is music that celebrates the physical and spiritual, thinking and feeling human. Trachea – the windpipe – is a place of transformation. Here the human breath is turned into the instrumental part of the choir: the voice. 

Throughout the six-piece musical journey the 55-year old chamber choir under guidance of Tone Bianca Sparre Dahl manages to evoke a vast variety of emotions. At the same time the album travels at different speeds. The fiddle-centred opening track ‘Snilla Patea’ by Bjørn Kåre Odde is followed by Martin Ødegaard’s atmospheric 13 minutes piece ‘Trachea’, which gives the album its name.

The third piece, a sung version of Stein Mehren’s poem ‘Alt I Universet’ by Ståle Kleiberg takes a short detour into Norwegian folklore. Following the Hans Christian Andersen-inspired piece ‘Oak and Mayfly’, the choir performs the poem ‘When I Close My Eyes I dream of peace” in twelve different languages. In the end, the album takes a spiritual path again. ‘Gloria’ is a setting of the words the angels purportedly sang to shepherds to announce the birth of Jesus. 

About the objective of the choir’s music conductor Tone Bianca Sparre Dahl says: ‘Whether the music is complex or simple, the objective remains equal: to cultivate an energy and a timbre which merge with the composition, elevating it to something larger than the sum of all its individual elements. It is during this encounter, where each individual forms part of something larger than themselves, that musical magic arises. This is what I seek.’

The album will be available on Pure Audio Blu-ray and has an Auro-3D and Dolby Atmos mix. You can find it in our store this August.

You can already purchase Schola Cantorum’s album ‘Hymn to the Virgin’, released on 2l Recordings here

Recommended Posts