In the middle of a triangle between Iceland, Scotland, and Norway lie the Faroe Islands. Since the early 1980s, a group of Faroese composers has emerged whose aim is to put both a personal and national stamp on the music they write. In this collection of woodwind pieces by seven composers, some of the music is uneventfully pleasant, while most is rather arid, short-winded (no pun intended), and lacking in focus. An elegiac bleakness hovers over most of the pieces, although the second movement of Kári Baek’s Fantasia comes alive with twitchy syncopations alternating with lyrical lines. Halfway through Sunleif Rasmussen’s slow-motion Cantus Borealis, a tonal center looms on the horizon, replete with contrabassoon groans from the bowels of the earth. Alas, the promised tunes turn out to be a mirage. While Edvard Nyholm Debess’ Báoumegin vio (On Both Sides) for solo clarinet goes on twice too long for what it has to say, the instrument is enhanced by a megadose of reverberation that proves quite effective. The remaining selections are conventionally engineered, which, by BIS’ standard, means superb. And the accomplished members of the Reykjavík Wind Quintet, along with pianist Gudrídur Sigurdardóttir, make the best possible case for these works.
