A Song For Friday: Anna Thorvaldsdottir

A world of glittering darkness awaits in UBIQUE. Plus: new releases from Mystery Sonata, Reiko Füting, Dice Trio, Deep Sea Diver, and Andy Bell.

“This is bold music, equal parts beauty and terror, and it has a strong theatrical bent.” Thus began my quest to describe the experience of listening to the extraordinary music of Anna Thorvaldsdottir. The album I was reviewing, 2014’s Aerial, represented a turning point in the Icelandic composer’s discography, and it’s been nothing but gold ever since.

That rich lineage continues today with the release of UBIQUE, which has not only the provenance of Thorvaldsdottir’s glorious musical imagination but arrives as the latest installment of flutist Claire Chase’s ambitious Density 2036 project. This is the 24-year plan that has her commissioning, performing, and recording new works for flute, leading up to 2036, the centennial of Edgard Varese’s pioneering solo flute piece, Density 21.5.

UBIQUE is included in the tenth cycle of Density 2036 and follows 2023 recordings of Parts VI, VII, and VIII straight into the stratosphere of musical magnificence. Composed for the unusual quartet of flute, piano, two cellos, and pre-constructed electronics, UBIQUE nevertheless features Thorvaldsdottir’s orchestral imagination in its deployment of material and synthetic approach to the blend of instruments. The electronics and extended techniques often free the instruments from any prosaic sense of their possibilities, generating what feels like pure music.

However, with players like Chase, pianist Cory Smyth, and cellists Katinka Kleijn and Seth Parker Woods, any moments of instrumental clarity are delivered with polished weight and a sense of purpose. Just focus on the first movement and savor the sensuality and surprise as it arrives out of silence with a husky flute, piano twangs, and brooding cellos. The ten movements that follow in this 46-minute tour de force will keep you on the edge of your seat!

In the press materials, Thorvaldsdottir gives some background what lies behind UBIQUE:

The work is inspired by the notion of being everywhere at the same time, an enveloping omnipresence, while simultaneously focusing on details within the density of each particle, echoed in various forms of fragmentation and interruption and in the sustain of certain elements of a sound beyond their natural resonance – throughout the piece, sounds are both reduced to their smallest particles and their atmospheric presence expanded towards the Infinite.

Released by Sono Luminus, the recording, which takes full advantage of Meyer Sound’s pioneering Constellation acoustical system in North Adams, MA, is superb, perfectly realizing Thorvaldsdottir’s molecular and massive vision. Now, it’s your turn lose and find yourself in UBIQUE.

Listen to most of 2025’s songs for Friday here or below.

Also out this week

Mystery Sonata - Aequora The duo of Mina Gajić (piano) and Zachary Carrettin (violin) has assembled a gorgeous collection of Icelandic composers here, including Thorvaldsdottir’s Reminiscence, first recorded by Julia Den Boer in 2021. Other pieces include Daniel Bjarnason’s whose folk-infused violin solo, Fire Escape, was written for Jennifer Koh, and Páll Ragnar Pálsson’s Notre Dame, originally composed for harp and violin. The album ends with a world-premiere recording of Re/fractions, composed in 2023/24 by María Huld Markan Sigfúsdóttir and commissioned by Mystery Sonata and the Boulder Bach Festival. It’s an expressive, songlike piece that over its two movements traverses delicate simplicity and romantic effusiveness. Kudos to Gajić and Carrettin for adding another album to the body of wonderful Icelandic music released by Sono Luminus.

Reiko Füting - distant: violin. sound Following up his chart-topping (at least to me!) Medieval opera, Mechthild, the German-American composer’s fifth portrait album showcases his spare, powerful chamber music. Featuring such fantastic groups as Longleash and Unheard//Ensemble and opening with Miranda Cuckson playing the passionately barbed passage: time (copy) for solo violin, the mastery throughout, from conception to execution, further establishes Füting as one of the essential composers of our time.

Pink Must - s/t Just when you think you have the duo of Mari 'More Eaze' Rubio and Lynn Avery nailed down as brand of glitchy folk-pop, they take a hard left turn even away from that niche of a genre. After a few listens, you’ll do as I did: stop trying to nail it down and just revel in the textures - from gauzy to gritty to shiny - and the off beat melodies. You, too, may get the sense of unexplored emotions being mapped using tools found in the rubble of the apocalypse.

Dice Trio - dicexfriends Following their debut EP with Grace Goss, the trio of Adeline DeBella (flute), Grace Pressley (saxophone), and Sam Friedman (trumpet) present a celebration of collaboration and community, highlighting performers and composers that work across many styles and instrumentations. These include Phonotonic, the duo of Leni Kreienberg and Samantha Kochis, who open the album with the quietly wild Nine Of Swords, and The Dolphins Quartet, a fearless bunch of Juilliard-trained string players who tie themselves in knots on Prism, composed by Stephen Morris. Vocalist and composer Chen Shuhe Yue invents a new comic language over the five short movements of The Last Day In Tate, while Folx Percussion joins Dice for Erich Barganier’s Smokestacks and Angel Dust, which begins in a music box and ends in street fight. The Anthropocene, composed by Giuseppe Gallo-Balma, features the four saxophones of the Vision Quartet, and for Where’s The Door, a duo calling themselves Becky, which includes a vocalist alongside Grace Goss on percussion, adds a further touch of the surreal. As DIY as any punks, Dice has a vision for 21st Century chamber music and they are making it happen in stunning style.

Deep Sea Diver - Billboard Heart Though this is the fourth album (and first for the mighty Sub Pop label) for this Seattle-based pop rock band led by Jessica Dobson, for me it’s the first true follow-up to 2012’s spiky and propulsive debut, History Speaks. But the two albums in between are important, too, even if they leaned in a glossier direction, as they allowed Dobson to develop her singing, songwriting, and (especially) guitar playing to the high level heard here. Nearly every song features either a distinctive riff or explosive solo - or both - that lifts it out of the ordinary. Dobson didn’t do all this on her own, of course, with longtime band member Peter Mansen co-writing many songs. Producer Andy Park and keyboard player Elliot Jackson lend structure and texture while well-chosen guest spots from pedal steel maestro Greg Leisz and others adding variety. But it’s Dobson who is the force they - and we - are all reckoning with here. May she never be tamed again.

Andy Bell - Pinball Wanderer Today is the last day of February, which means it’s the end of MWE for 2025. This is the “music writer exercise” begun years ago by Gary Suarez on Twitter that asks you to listen to one new-to-you album each day and write about it. Now taking place on Bluesky in addition to that other site, it’s fun for all. To get an idea of what it looks like, find my posts about this killer album by the Ride guitarist here or here.

From the archive

Best Of 15: The Top 20
Record Roundup: Enigmas And Excitations

Note: the graphic above is based on a photo by Saga Sigurdardottir.