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Marcus Fjellstr÷m - Exercises in Estrangement
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Year :: 2005
Label :: LAMPSE
Cat No :: LAMP002
Genre :: Avantgarde
Tracks :: 09
Size :: 64,1 MB
Source :: CDDA
Bitrate :: VBRKBps
Rel. Date :: 15/07/2005
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Marcus' relationship with music started,
unsurprisingly, early on in his life. With piano
lessons since the age of nine, he was soon fascinated
by the magic abilities of synths and samplers and
experimented, as a teenager, with electronic music.
This passion later grew to include orchestral and
modern classical music and led to a degree in
Composition. A big art-house cinema fan himself,
Marcus had the opportunity over the next couple of
years to provide the score for several independent
productions in his homeland Sweden. Many of his
compositions have been performed by known chamber
ensembles, soloists and orchestras to audiences in
Sweden as well as Australia, USA, Norway, Finland and
the UK.
Combining his training in classical composition and
his experience with electronic music and sound design
Marcus Fjellst÷m has managed to create his own
musical language. Taking his influences from
twentieth-century art music, nineteenth-century
orchestral/chamber music and avant-garde electronica
he has perfected a unique sound that takes us to a
new musical universe where timbre and harmony is a
dominating force. His music, often impressionistic,
slightly abstracted and always poetically pregnant,
transcends genres and exists outside the known
borders.
Marcus is currently at the end of his Postgraduate
Diploma in Composition.
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The title of this album summarizes in two words what
the listener's expectations should be. The word
'Exercise' is connected to the world of classical
music, whereas 'Estrangement' prepares us for
something that we might have to protect ourselves
from, something alien that will make us want to turn
away.
What young composer Marcus Fjellstr÷m has given us is
a collection of very dark and melancholic pieces with
a strange beauty. Normally composing works for
orchestras and chamber musicians, as well as scores
for films, these two practises have filtered through
in 'Exercises..'. Long, haunting ambient tracks are
reminiscent of dark Lynchian worlds. Frantic
orchestral moments could be the soundtrack to a
Svankmajer mechanical puppet show or even a surreal
circus performance. Like all the above would not
qualify for an easy viewing, so Marcus' music is not
one to embrace very quickly. It requires repeated
listening in order to peel through all the layers and
find the hidden musical pathways he has laid for us.
An obvious comparison is the works of avant-garde
composers such as John Cage, Steve Reich and Luciano
Berio. A stronger reference point though would be the
early experimentations of leading electronic music
composer and Cage's close friend Morton Subotnick, as
well as the output of modern electronica mavericks
Aphex Twin and Autechre. Marcus, like them,
acknowledges the advantages of the electronic medium
and doesn't hesitate to place it at the centre of his
work.
'Exercises In Estrangement' is a strong example of
the possible directions in modern (classical) music.
Already paved by names such as Ligeti, Thomas K÷ner,
Supersilent and Deathprod, to name but a few, the
path is long. With albums like this, the future is
exciting.
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[01] Marcus Fjellstr÷m - Planchette [08:13]
[02] Marcus Fjellstr÷m - Jeux [02:33]
[03] Marcus Fjellstr÷m - Marionettes Revised [07:29]
[04] Marcus Fjellstr÷m - Lev Poem [02:19]
[05] Marcus Fjellstr÷m - Kandinsky Kammer [04:42]
[06] Marcus Fjellstr÷m - Oil [06:20]
[07] Marcus Fjellstr÷m - Music For Dx7 [03:36]
[08] Marcus Fjellstr÷m - Anstice [03:53]
[09] Marcus Fjellstr÷m - Campane Morti e Acqua [09:27]
Crescente
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