Soundtrack Of An Imaginary Opera
Ravello, 2022
8/10
Listen to Soundtrack Of An Imaginary Opera
The Finland native and current Norway resident Rebecka Sofia Ahvenniemi doesn’t approach opera with a typical vision, and here she injects philosophy, artificial language and acoustic ideas into the very distinct listen.
“Beauty Hurts” opens the listen with Elisabeth Holmertz, Martina Starr-Lassen, and Ørjan Hartveit’s lovely, expressive voices as Jutta Morgenstern’s violin and Agnese Rugevica’s cello add much elegance to the mysterious climate, and “Punish Me Please” follows with Ole André Farstad’s guitar and Erik Håkon Halvorsen’s synthesizer adding much atmosphere to the animated and lush display.
“Who Is Your Daddy? Who Is Your Mommy?” occupies the middle spot and benefits much from Owen Weaver’s well timed percussion, while “Leave Life” allows the soaring voices to radiate much beauty alongside the stirring strings and subtle synth.
The bonus track, Es dringen Bluten”, is quite adventurous and brings video game friendly noises to the unpredictable strings and synth flourishes that nearly sounds sci-fi.
Ahvenniemi takes a very iconoclastic approach to her craft, and it sure makes for an unorthodox but very exciting body of work.
Travels well with: Stuart Weber- Pieces Of Road; James Dashow- Soundings In Pure Duration Vol 2