Gunnel Mauritzson
Five of Åter's eleven traditionally inspired selections are Mauritzson compositions (SKAP, the Swedish composer's organization, recently honored her work). Tinged with an austere Baltic beauty, Mauritzson's arrangements sustain a stately melancholic quality, the solitary expressive voice of bittersweet experience, wisdom earned the hard way, a little too late.
Complementing her delicate but startling vocal precision, the sparseness of the instrumental mood - always rooted in but never bound by folk tradition - somehow stills the furor of the music's astringent counterpoints. Mauritzson chants and teases ("Svart Fjäril"), whispers and reflects ("Åter"), murmurs ("Två Klots Hastighet"), insists ("Hemmet"), laments ("Sorgfågel," "Tånkar Du I Världen"), rejoices ("Noras Hemlightet"), takes flight ("Solhailing"). And on "Vita Blomma" (a traditional song arranged by Björn Ståbi, fiddler extraordinaire of Nåra), a mournful, sensuous, naturalistic poesy reigns: "It is here in silence you speak, white flower, and fragrance is your language." Throughout, voice and ensemble entwine in music whose durable human spirit, wounded but true, speaks like ice, like fire. With a restrained, elegant soulfulness, Åter is a most remarkable recording. - Michael Stone
Available at cdRoots
(p)(c)2001 Xource, used by permission
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