A review of Tundra Songs by Mark Swed of the L.A. Times (quoted here in part)
"Tagaq appeared at the end of the evening as well for a new work by Derek Charke commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, which presented the concert. Before that, the Kronos played short, engaging pieces by the Norwegian group Xploding Plastix, the popular Icelandic band Sigur Rós and the Finnish accordion and sampling duo Kimmo Pohjonen and Samuli Kosminen, along with an arrangement of a Swedish folk song as haunting as a Bergman film. Kronos also revived Kaija Saariaho’s "Nymphéa," a sensual sonic landscape of bows scraping on amplified strings that the Finnish composer wrote for it 21 years ago.
Charke, a Canadian composer, provided a long, compelling program note about traveling to Nunavut's capital, Iqaluit, to prepare for his collaboration with Tagaq and recording nature sounds, which accompany the Kronos and the singer in "Tundra Songs." But one remarkable aspect of this extraordinary half-hour piece in five connected sections is that you can't tell what is what. This is music that goes far beyond the composer's vivid descriptions of howling dogs, whizzing snowmobiles, buzzing mosquitoes, honking geese and hoof-clicking caribou.
The score also goes beyond the notes on the page. Tagaq, who sat (though hardly still) behind the quartet, had music in front of her. But her eyes were elsewhere. She seemed to take her cues from the music absorbed in her body. She became one with the strings and the prerecorded soundscape.
Charke's style is not far out. He has a command of likable post-Minimalist techniques. He creates grooves. He matches string textures, through devices such as circular bowing, with atmospheric sounds. But he understands Tagaq's ability to inject a life force into sound, and the piece took off. In the central movement, Tagaq recited an Inuit myth, "Sedna's Song," about a drowned goddess whose severed fingers became the creatures of the sea. It was mesmerizing.
"Tundra Songs" is the 600-and-somethingth piece written for Kronos over more than three decades -- and another keeper. The playing all evening was passionate and superb. If ever an ensemble has found a fountain of youth, it is this one."
Read the entire review
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