Composer Synne Skouen has been a vital and important voice on the Norwegian cultural scene for more than 30 years. ‘Call-Notes’ is the first disc to be devoted to her distinctive music, and the performers are some of the most high profile in her native Norway, including the Norwegian Radio Orchestra with conductor Christian Eggen, and the Oslo String Quartet.
Synne Skouen studied at the Hochschule für Musik und darstellende Kunst in Vienna, experimental composition at the Academy’s electronic studio, and composition with Finn Mortensen at the Norwegian Academy of Music. Her music is in close relation with concrete everyday human experience. At the same time these works are full of silences and pauses which draw us in by appearing to call us from somewhere in the distance.
Synne Skouen and Kjersti Alveberg’s ballet Volven was written in 1989 and has been a great success for the Norwegian National Opera and Ballet, featuring several times on the repertoire since the first performance. The ballet is based on the epic Norse poem Voluspå, written in the form of prophesies foretold by the mythical sibyl Volven. She draws on many different cultural sources in her works. The two solo pieces for violin both borrow their title from Marguerite Duras’ novel Les Yeux Bleus Cheveux Noirs – “Blue eyes, black hair”. In ‘O Vilhelm, Vilhelm’ the string quartet is joined by a singer, with a text and tune from the Romani cultural tradition. In ‘Vent!’ (Wait!) Skuen plays with our conception of contemporary music as ‘difficult’, suggesting the possibility that new music can virtually compose itself.
