Sound and Simplicity (Seven Pillars of Music for Accordion and Symphony Orchestra) - 2018
Dream Catcher (arr. Bjarke Mogensen)
Symphony No. 3 "Dream Catcher" (Reissue)

This is Volume 16 of the Poul Ruders Edition, a long-standing series of recordings on Bridge Records devoted to the music of Danish composer Poul Ruders (b. 1949). In a previous review of one of these recordings I wrote something that bears repeating: "One would be hard-pressed to find another composer as versatile and versicoloured as Ruders. He's written operas, symphonies, ballet scores, concertos for various instruments, choral and vocal works, music for solo instruments of all kinds, works for large orchestra and pieces for solo percussion. They all bear his stamp, but at the same time, none of his works ever seem to wear the same exterior costume. He has a gift for discovering and exposing sonorities within an orchestra that you would never think possible, or for juxtaposing unusual instrumental combinations that one would usually discard, and making them fit together perfectly." For example, one of the first recordings of his music that I heard was a Chandos label recording from the early 1990s. One of the works for orchestra on it was titled "Gong" and meant to represent the sun. At one point within the piece I thought to myself: "If tremendous heat and energy generated sound, this would be it". Another piece titled "Thus saw St John" contained passages that could best be described as the sonic equivalent of terrifying apparitions.

This present recording doesn't go to such extremes, but the pairing in Sound and Simplicity of an accordion with a symphony orchestra generates sonic textures and colors that are completely unorthodox and unexpected. Personally I've never liked the sound of the accordion as I find it to be synthetic or almost computer-generated. But when combined with the right mix of instruments or scored to combine odd groups of notes, it's a totally different animal. Even in Dream Catcher, an arrangement for solo accordion by Bjarke Mogensen of a highly haunting and evocative theme from a previous work by Ruders, the accordion actually sounds expressive and emotive. And the fact that one of the main themes of the Symphony No. 3 is also based on the "Dream Catcher" motif, makes for a filler that ties in well with everything else, even if it is a reissue of a previous recording.

If you've yet to experience the music of Poul Ruders, this is as good a place to start as any. Yes it is "new" music, and I won't deny that it's probably not to everyone's taste or within everyone's comfort zone, but I will say that on a deeper, emotional, expressive and almost visceral level, it speaks volumes when compared to some of the "superficial" noise that passes for music these days.