STARA スターラ - ハルドール・スマウラソン: 作品集 ［CD+Blu-ray Audio］

アイスランドのピアニスト、作曲家ハルドール・スマウラソン。アイスランド芸術アカデミーでピアノを学び、マンハッタン音楽学校で学位を取得しています。このデビュー・アルバムは彼の故郷であるイーサフィヨルズルで録音されています。ニューヨークでの学生時代からフリーランスの作曲家として活動する現在まで、さまざまな段階の作品を並べることで、彼のスタイルの変遷をたどることができます。彼の作品はしばしば親しい人々に捧げられていることが多く、このアルバムの作品も「draw + play」は彼の親しい友人、「Stara」は彼の母に献呈されています。
ナクソス・ジャパン

The music of composer Halldor Smarason includes liberal use of silences and held notes that are modulated in some way so as to give them an edge. It sounds a bit electronic even when it is not, and here on his debut album, as if to emphasize the point, Smarason includes a piece for guitar and electronics, Skulptur 1, that does not depart strongly from the sound of the other acoustic works on the album. (It does depart conceptually: there is supposed to be an alarm from the electronics if the guitarist does not jump through certain hoops.) One wonders what this is like in performance, but it does not happen here. The structure of each work is similar, but it takes on variation according to the instrumentation of each work, with the characteristic texture accomplished differently according to this variable. Smarason probably will not be to the taste of those with no interest in avant-garde music, but this music is clear and accessible. It is also substantially enhanced by the engineering of the audiophile Sono Luminus label, an ideal partner to Smarason. The venue is a custom-built auditorium at the Isafjordhur Music School in Smarasons Icelandic hometown, and it brings out every detail of the sonic modulations the composer specifies. Smarason is quite young, and this sounds like the beginning of a brilliant career.