Madeleine Isaksson
Conductor: Rei Munakata
Producer: Per Sjösten
Footprint Records FR129
2024
Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, CD
A composer portrait signed Gageego!
Madeleine Isaksson’s work are a recurring feature at Gageego!’s concerts. Now we are finally presented a portrait of the composer with works from different phases of Isaksson’s production:
- Infiltrations (2022)
- Fibres (2004)
- Sondes (2009)
- Far … (2011)
- Ici est ailleurs (1988–1989)
Besides Gageeego! featured guest musicians are Stefan Östersjö on guitar and Hans Hellsten on organ.
From the CD insert essay
The key words here are ‘map’, ‘colour’ and, especially, ‘drawing’. They suggest ideas to do with lines and relationships, as well as forms of movement and spontaneity: means of navigation and orientation, the connecting of points, and the articulation of vertical and horizontal space.
When one talks at greater length with the composer, these are the concepts that the conversation keeps coming back to. And although some aspects of Isaksson’s style and technique have evolved over the years – particularly her early use of microtones, which have been more or less absent from her music since the early 2000s – the fundamental 4 elements have remained relatively constant.
From Ici est ailleurs, from 1998, to Infiltrations, composed in 2022, this CD presents an oppor- tunity to examine the development and stability of those elements across almost the full span of Isaksson’s career.
Atmospheric sound stage
Producer Per Sjösten has created a three-dimensional and evocative soundscape that is particularly effective in the Dolby Atmos edition (Apple Music and Tidal).
Cover art: Jean-Louis Garnell