Amethystium – Treasure (buy the album, “Isabliss”)

Amethystium is the solo project of Norwegian composer Øystein Ramfjord.  Besides having the most Norwegian name in all of Norway, he writes gorgeous atmospheric chilled-out/ambient electronica/worldbeat music ala Enigma, Delerium and Deep Forest.  He’s usually labeled as “New Age”, but I really have no idea what that even means (does anyone?), so I’ll avoid it.  Anyways, He’s released 4 albums so far, all of which, I was surprised to discover, have apparently debuted fairly high on the US billboard charts!  Primarily instrumental, his music is more about moods and describing environments through sound than about telling a story.  Some songs are expansively beautiful, others more claustrophobic and eerie.  It’s great music for studying, working or traveling.  You won’t be rocking out to this at the club, or playing it on the next release of Rock Band, but when you just want to relax, focus or unwind, this is great stuff.

The slightly eerie cover of the latest Amethystium album, 2008's "Isabliss".

Treasure is from the most recent (2008) Amethystium album – “Isabliss”.  The Garden of Sakuntala had long been my favourite, go-to Amethystium song, but this immediately changed after listening to the first minute of Treasure.  The beginning starts out normally enough for an Amethystium song, with a catchy beat underneath a floating/bubbling synth groove.  However, things get really special at 0:40 when, lo and behold, a gorgeous female vocalist joins in with a delicately realized vocal melody and actual lyrics!  The vocal harmony at 2:10 is one of my favourite Amethystium Moments ™, though my favourite part of the song comes at 4:20 when the violin (?) takes over the lead melody.  It’s such a soulful song, and a good representation of the sheer beauty of Amethystium’s music.  Mr. Ramfjord has tapped into some special and arcane wellspring of inspiration, and we are fortunate to share in his discovery!

(Amethystium doesn’t have any official videos, so here’s Anthemoessa from “Isabliss” along with some unrelated artwork FROM SPACE.)

Garden of Sakuntala, from 2003′s “Aphelion”, was my favourite Amethystium track for many years, and probably got more play time than most of the rest of my music collection.  It’s just the perfect mix of melody, soothing ambiance and driving beat, tinged with an exotic bite which keeps it from fading completely into the background.  This song reminds me of math problems, my city at night, French train cars and dragonflies (because there is one on the cover of the album).  Apparently the first three albums (“Aphelion” is #2, between “Odonata” and “Evermind”) are the “Dragonfly Trilogy” though I’ll be damned if I can figure out what dragonflies have to do with anything other than the cover art.  Fantastic song!

The last song I’ll post is Withdrawal, a rather different song from the others above.  It’s much more chilly, without the upbeat synths and drum loops.  It starts off with a trembling note, shimmering and shivering in anticipation, like a cry in the night, foretelling what is to come.  The piano melody which follows is decidedly mournful, and it becomes even more oso when, at 1:45, the erhu joins in.  YES, AN ERHU!  This single ~40 second clip of music, along with similar stuff like the violin in the MSMOTD has influenced my own music more than I can know.  You can hear its influence whenever I write a mournful strings melody like the one in Silhouettes.  This song is also one of the pieces which drive my desire to learn to play the erhu (a 2-stringed chinese violin), so that I may include its mournful, soulful voice in my own songs.

Amethystium’s albums are quite special in that there are no weak tracks.  I’ve highlighted a few here, but if you like what you hear, then you’ll love everything on the rest of the albums.  I hope you search out the rest of his fantastic music, as its given me a lot of enjoyment over the years.  Leave a comment and let me know what you think!

- Mons

More music from Amethystium

Amethystium – Garden Of Sakuntala (buy the album, “Aphelion”)

Amethystium – Withdrawal (buy the album, “Aphelion”)

Further info about today’s MSMOTD

Official Website: http://www.amethystium.com/

Myspace Page: http://www.myspace.com/amethystium (more songs to check out here!)

Wikipedia Article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amethystium

Featured Review: Review of “Isabliss” on Buzinky Blog

Support Amethystium (and me!) by clicking these links and buying their music on Amazon.com.  Besides “Aphelion” and “Isabliss”, you can also buy “Odonata” and “Evermind”, both excellent. Unfortunately, individual mp3 tracks are not available for Amethystium on Amazon.

Edvard Grieg – Aase’s Death (from “Peer Gynt” – buy this song)

I haven’t done any Classical music yet, so this seems like a good place to start.  Grieg was a Norwegian “Romantic” composer who lived from 1843 until 1907.  He trained in Germany and became very famous, with Tchaikovsky praising his music’s beauty, originality and warmth.   He was good friends with Liszt and is often compared to Chopin, being not only a fantastic composer, but a great pianist as well.  Some of his more famous works include In The Hall Of The Mountain King (which he rather disliked) and Morning Mood, both of which are instantly recognizable pretty much everyone in the Western World.  He’s also influenced a lot of subsequent work, including Samuel Barber’s “Adagio for Strings” and Clint Mansell’s “Lux Aeterna”, both of which are intensely popular.  Grieg’s music is at times bright and lively, sad and mournful or light and peaceful, but always gorgeous.  He’s considered one of Norway’s national treasures and is buried in an honest-to-god Mountain Crypt.

Edvard Grieg himself, in a portrait done by Eilif Peterssen. He had a bit of an Einstein vibe going on.

I’ve chosen Aase’s Death as the MSMOTD because it is so incredibly beautiful and is an early example of minimalist classical music (which I love).  It’s intensely emotional, but at the same time lyrical and melodically simple.  Sorrowful strings droop and swell with great passion, evoking images of love, grief and loss.  This is a good example of how the space between notes is almost as important as the notes themselves in creating melody, mood and music.  In that sense it’s similar to Samuel Barber’s “Adagio for Strings”, another incredibly gorgeous minimalist piece for strings or choir.  This song (which is also spelt “Ase” and “Aese”) is about the death of the mother of the main character from Peer Gynt, but it’s much broader than that, conveying an intense sorrow.  Really incredible piece of music.  I don’t really want to write more about it as I want it to speak for itself (as all good music does).  Listen and enjoy.

(Arthur Rubinstein performing Grieg’s Piano Concerto in A Minor)

The above video is of Arthur Rubinstein‘s 1975 performance of Edvard’s most enthusiastically received work.  The Piano Concerto in A Minor is probably his most famous piece among classical enthusiasts (Rubinstein called it the perfect concerto), and it’s clearly evident why.  The opening piano flourish is really memorable, as is the melody which follows on strings/woodwinds and is then taken up and embellished by the piano.  This has a lot of elements which are missing from much modern music – dynamics being the big one.  The dramatic shifts between quiet and loud serve to emphasize the emotional impact of the music and give it life.  The performance in the video is similarly brilliant.  I only wish I could play the piano like Rubinstein, who is considered one of the greatest concert pianists of the 20th century.  Can you believe he was 88 years old in this video?  He was born in 1887, only 19 years after the piece was written.

The other two pieces I’ve included below are his most well known songs in popular culture.  Both In The Hall of the Mountain King and Morning Mood have been used in innumerable movies, tv shows and saturday morning cartoons.  Morning Mood, with it’s inverted arch of a melody and pastoral hum evokes the Norwegian dawn, the sun peeking over the mountains, shedding the first beams of light across the majestic fjords and illuminating the brilliant swaths of greenery that cascade down the mountains to meet the brilliant blue of the waters far below.  For me it also evokes scenes from loony tunes and so forth, in which the opening melody is used to introduce scenes of peaceful stillness which will inevitably be disrupted by unruly talking animals and their manic escapades. 

In The Hall of the Mountain King is a whirlwind of sound written to represent a grand chase scene involving gnomes.  Grieg actually didn’t like this piece at all, saying “I have also written something for the scene in the hall of the mountain King – something that I literally can’t bear listening to because it absolutely reeks of cow-pies, exaggerated Norwegian nationalism, and trollish self-satisfaction! But I have a hunch that the irony will be discernible.” I’m not sure that anyone these days is able to discern Grieg’s irony in the song.  It’s endlessly fascinating how one piece of music can be interpreted and viewed in so many different ways by different people.  Magic, though Grieg would no doubt be frustrated by our lack of irony.  Beklager, Grieg, vi er ikke verdig.

I still can't believe that Edvard Grieg has his own honest-to-god mountain crypt (pictured here). When I am buried, I want a crypt.

I wish I knew what performance of Peer Gynt this was.  Ah well.  Hope you enjoyed this introduction to Norwegian Classical music!  Any future music I post from Norway will probably be somewhat less erudite, haha (though no less fantastic).  Leave a comment and tell me what you thought of today’s MSMOTD!

- Mons

More music by Edvard Grieg

Edvard Grieg – Morning Mood (from “Peer Gynt” – buy this song)

Edvard Grieg – In The Hall Of The Mountain King (from “Peer Gynt” – buy this song)

Further info about today’s MSMOTD

Official website: This homepage for Grieg or the Edvard Grieg Society page is probably the closest to anything “official”.

Wikipedia link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edvard_Grieg

Featured review: Allmusic’s detailed site with reviews of his various works.

Support the maintenance of Grieg’s crypt (and the various booby-traps and undead guardians situated within) by purchasing the excellent Peer Gynt suite (recorded by the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra) from Amazon.com!  You can also download the Piano Concerto Opus 16 in A Minor as recorded by Rubinstein.