Anna Thorvaldsdottir: Catamorphosis
Missy Mazzoli: Sinfonia (for Orbiting Spheres)
Daniel Bjarnason: From Space I Saw Earth
Maria Huld Markan Sigfusdottir: Clockworking for Orchestra
Bara Gisladottir: ÓS

As the Atmospheriques title of this CD implies, the music in this recording sets out to create an aural atmosphere. Not the idyllically Arcadian, down by the lake sense of serenity, but rather a much larger scale illusion of cosmic space and time. As a matter of fact, whilst listening to these various works, the soundtrack of 2001: A Space Odyssey would often come to mind. Amorphous, nebulous, chaotic, obscure and at times even disquieting or unsettling, are some of the descriptive adjectives one could ascribe to most of these compositions. Imposed by its title, the only piece on this CD that adheres to any formal structure, is Clockworking for Orchestra by Maria Huld Markan Sigfusdottir, a composer of orchestral, choral and film music.

On the other hand, Anna Thorvaldsdottir's Catamorphosis is, as the booklet notes point out "an ecosystem of sounds, where materials continuously grow in and out of each other." Here and there, a melodic strand will sporadically come to the surface, only to be reabsorbed within the orchestral fabric, which includes a very intuitive use of a piano. And From Space I Saw Earth by composer/conductor Daniel Bjarnason delivers the sense of a long, deep-space excursion, whilst Missy Mazzoli's Sinfonia (for Orbiting Spheres) feels more like a quick gambol through our solar system which ends in a vanishing point. With its explosive use of percussive effects and strangely eerie sound textures, Bara Gisladottir's dynamic ÓS, evokes the imagery of a desolate and distant probe travelling through the universe's dark energy fields.

Recorded using 24 bit DXD technology, the immersive audio quality allows you to hear even the finest details within this cosmological ocean of sonic effulgence.