Aurora Records proudly presents Critical Bands, featuring some of Norway’s leading performers on the contemporary music scene: Bjørnar Habbestad (flutes), Hild Sofie Tafjord (horn), Lene Grenager (cello), and Michael Francis Duch (double bass). The new album will be available as a CD and on digital platforms on May 5th 2023, and is the highly productive composition collective’s first release on Aurora. The album will be celebrated with a concert in Oslo on the 6th of May.

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Critical Bands is the culmination of Lemur’s decade-long exploration of physical, abstract, and ephemeral sonic spaces. Recorded by more than fifty musicians in different sites and configurations across several countries, the album exposes deep layers of sonic exploration. Complex instrumental materials are captured and filtered through different architectonic spaces, revealing a modular, site-specific composition practice.

‘Critical Bands is designed as a process’ LEMUR states. ‘It takes form as negotiation between different sites, musicians, scores, and recordings that investigates how music can relate to the space in which it is performed’. 

The album was recorded in Nidarosdomen (Trondheim), Korskirken (Bergen), Sofienberg kirke (Oslo), LiteraturHaus (Copenhagen), Notam (Oslo), Harpa (Reykjavik), and Athletic Sound (Halden) and subsequently combined, edited and re-composed by the ensemble. The work is realized with performances from outstanding musicians from Norway and abroad; Eivind Lønning (trumpet), Morten Barrikmo (clarinets), Tanja Orning (cello), Robin Hayward (tuba), Torben Snekkestad (sax), Lotte Anker, Caput Ensemble, Ole Henrik Moe (octobass, violin, viola), Kari Rønnekleiv and many more!