SHADOWGLOW: THE MUSIC
All compositions have been created jointly by Raoul Björkenheim and Lukas Ligeti.
Into Fall has Björkenheim’s 12-string guitar tuned to an unconventional open chord spanning fields of green, blue and pink over Ligeti’s polymetric drum patterns.
Ghostedwall is a grey-blue-metallic high-speed dialogue between drums and prepared guitar, with the guitar producing a simultaneous backdrop of gentle yet ominous church-bell sounds.
Niagara Mohawk is a journey between two wildly different worlds, referencing areas such as new dance beats and free jazz, tied together by interrelated guitar sounds and a succession of surprising yet organic tempo changes.
Rain Turns Red Gold has Björkenheim’s Tri-sonic steel guitar telling an African-inspired musical tale, perhaps of arid fields made fertile by the rain, accompanied by Ligeti’s prepared log-drum and other rare sounds.
Cogwheels of Speed has Ligeti’s polymetric, motion-based drumming technique, inspired by concepts from Central African music, driving this piece in which the drums and the guitar engage in a wild chase ending in a high-energy stretta.
Shed and Torn features Björkenheim playing an electric viola da gamba built to his design by Finnish luthier Wege. Various sound worlds are visited, from string harmonics to Ligeti’s pitch bends on his Chinese tam-tam, to sounds evoking the gimbri, a string instrument of Morocco’s Gnawa culture.
In the Flesh is an introspective dialogue with Ligeti’s bass drum acting as the harmonic pedal point for Björkenheim’s guitar lines, which take on a vocal quality as they move between modal regions.
Duoyell uses pansori vocal music from Korea and John Coltrane as inspirations for Björkenheim’s guitar melodies, which enter into an energetic call and response with Ligeti’s free-flowing drumming.
Olivezone has rock rhythms briefly surfacing as Ligeti creates a polyrhythmic backdrop to Björkenheim’s prepared guitar, their interaction pulling and tugging as they go back and forth between various melodic themes, surprising each other on the way.
Viscousphere has Björkenheim using the prepared outer strings of his guitar to create a quasi-gamelan accompaniment while employing a slide on the inner strings to evoke a sub-aquatic environment over Ligeti’s buzzing and ringing percussion, ranging from orange to anthracite.
Fountain Jewel uses African musics of many types as the main inspiration for an atmospheric journey: for Björkenheim, the stylings of Madagascar’s acoustic guitar virtuoso D’Gary, and for Ligeti, the rhythms of West and Central African urban pop. Together, they create an imaginary landscape of bright and inviting colors.
Changgo Valse features the monochrome scale of Björkenheim’s 12-string guitar, evoking open spaces tinged with a sense of melancholy, and Ligeti’s grooves, influenced by the Changgo drum from Korea, that combine in an unsettling way. Increasingly, however, subtle interaction brings about a fragile cohesion between these disparate soundworlds.