Sirenengesang from Schnee by Aventa Ensemble

It reminds me of something I’ve never heard!  

Such was the spontaneous reaction of the Norwegian composer Arne Nordheim upon hearing a work by Bent Sørensen. It is not easy to imagine a more strangely to-the-point description of the ambiguous, almost paradoxical expressive idiom of this unique composer, who is without doubt the leading Danish composer of his generation. Of Sirenengesang the composer writes: “The music is not a romantic reflection on presumed siren songs. The title expresses an impalpable conception which manifests itself in dense quartertone-distorted melodies and manic, almost frozen tone-repetitions. Sometimes the music becomes static screams, sometimes there is room for small naive fragments of melody.”

Tracklist