Ciaccona / 3 Persephone Perceptions

Norway's Ole-Henrik Moe is a renowned composer/improviser who has participated in theatre productions and modern dance performances, and this is his debut release. This is probably among the most extreme solo violin music ever written, performed and recorded. Two pieces lasting 40 and 43 minutes both push the performer to the edge when it comes to endurance and concentration, which is why Ole-Henrik Moe, himself a more than capable violinist, was happy to leave the difficult task to his wife, Kari Ronnekleiv, an accomplished player perfect for this kind of challenge. He has worked with a wide selection of musicians and artists and dived into the most unlikely collaborations. At times too extreme even for the most open-minded in academic music circles, his like-minded kindred spirits will most likely be found among followers of sound artists like Deathprod, Maja Ratkje and Lasse Marhaug or composers like Giacinto Scelsi, Morton Feldman and Edgard Varèse. He studied violin at the Music Conservatory of Oslo and composition at the State Academy of Music in Oslo. He also studied composition with Iannis Xenakis at the Sorbonne University in France and at the Conservatoire Superieur de la Musique in Paris. He has written orchestral works, electronic works, chamber works, composed for art installations and has worked extensively with the Arditti Quartet. He has also worked and recorded with Deathprod, Nils Okland, Magne Furuholmen (Hermetic), the White Birch and Motorpsycho. In 2006 he was awarded the Arne Nordheim composer prize. Kari Ronnekleiv co-founded the internationally-acclaimed Trondheimsolistene orchestra in 1988 and has worked with them as assistant concert master and soloist touring Europe and Japan as well as recording several CDs with them. She has also played with and been attached to Trondheim Symphony Orchestra and Bodo Sinfonietta and has worked extensively with contemporary music and chamber music in several countries. Both Kari and Ole-Henrik have regularly and on several occasions experimented with improvisation in their playing, a rare thing among classically-trained violinists.