Grieg's Suite From Holberg's time is one of the main pillars of the repertoire for string orchestra. However, for the racy rhythm in the first movement, the beautiful cantilenas in the multiple divided parts of the middle movements and the virtuoso rigaudon in the solos to come into their own, performers of a high standard are required. For me, this suite is a piece for professional, at best semi-professional chamber orchestras. And a wonderful introduction to music for ambitious young string players!

All the more reason for me to welcome the publication of this new edition by Henle, which offers all the comforts that are indispensable today: Bar numbers in the score and in all parts, large-format paper in thick quality, parts set 3/3/2/2/1, clear music notation and a pagination suitable for performance. If you are traveling digitally, you can also purchase the score and parts in the Henle app.

First for piano, then for string orchestra

Edvard Grieg composed the suite in 1884 to mark the 200th birthday of the Norwegian polymath and poet Ludvig Holberg (1684-1754), whom he also referred to as the "Molière of the North". The version for string orchestra was preceded by the version for two-handed piano (also available from Henle, HN 432). It is less well known today than the arrangement for string orchestra completed by the composer in February 1885. It seems that Edvard Grieg already had the string sound in mind when composing the piano work. The fourth movement "Air" is one of the most beautiful string pieces, music for the desert island!

The editor Ernst-Günter Heinemann cites the first editions of the score and parts published by Peters in Leipzig (1886) with the composer's handwritten entries as essential sources. Grieg himself conducted the premiere in Bergen on March 13, 1885 (from handwritten parts). The autograph, which subsequently served as an engraver's model for the publisher, is unfortunately lost. Bowings and occasional fingerings, which are entered in the parts, were probably already there and correspond entirely to the author's ideas. They have been included in this Henle edition. But - don't worry - there are only a few of them, and they are all good!

Grieg cannot deny himself

If the Holberg Suite even if it is "Romantic" Baroque, which has little in common with today's knowledge of historically informed musical practice, it is nevertheless a valuable contemporary document of the reception of Baroque music in Grieg's time. The work allows us to take note with a smile of how its Romantic creator always remains recognizable through the Baroque idiom, despite his remark in a letter to Julius Röntgen in 1884: "It is actually a good exercise, as an exception, to hide one's own personality."

Edvard Grieg: From Holberg's time. Suite in the old style op. 40, version for string orchestra, edited by Ernst-Günter Heinemann; score, HN 3320, € 22.00; set of parts, HN 3322, € 45.00; study score, HN 7012, € 10.00; G. Henle, Munich

Cellists may sometimes look a little enviously at the violin literature. Of course, the cello literature includes Robert Schumann's profound Concerto in A minor. But does it also contain a "jewel of the heart", as Joseph Joachim described Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy's Violin Concerto in E minor in 1906?

At least the Cello Concerto No. 1 in D minor op. 193 (1874) by Joachim Raff partially closes this supposed gap. Mendelssohn's Opus 64 was clearly the inspiration for it. The passionate entry of the solo instrument after two bars of orchestral introduction at the beginning, the brilliant cadenza at the end of the first movement, the flowing transition into the second movement, which is also in 6/8 meter, the lively rondo theme of the third movement: these are all elements in which the great model is audibly reflected. In the 3rd movement, Raff adds Paganini's perennial favorite Moto perpetuo op. 11.

The contemporary reviews were predominantly positive. However, in the 20th century, the proximity of this opus to Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto was sometimes criticized as unoriginal. Wrongly so! Raff's first cello concerto, dedicated to Friedrich Grützmacher, is a profound tribute and convincing homage to his great role model and offers the performers a rich palette of musical expression such as passionate cantilenas and brilliant passagework, which will not fail to have an effect on the audience.

The concerto has now been published by Breitkopf und Härtel in a new critical edition edited by Jonas Kreienbühl and Andrea Wiesli.

Joachim Raff: Concerto for Violoncello and Orchestra No. 1 in D minor, edited by Jonas Kreienbühl and Andrea Wiesli, score, PB 5715, € 65.00, Breitkopf & Härtel, Wiesbaden

Who hasn't seen them, the pretty, often colorfully painted house organs that stood in the ridge chamber of many a Toggenburg farmhouse in the late 18th and early 19th centuries? The meticulously researched and comprehensively documented book by musician, musicologist and organ builder Markus Meier is therefore naturally dedicated to the history and context of house organ building there.

This can develop over a period of around 75 years and leads to an almost standardized and perfected type of instrument, especially in the instruments of the Looser family (a list of almost 100 instruments can be found in the appendix). Meier also sheds light on the ecclesiastical organ building in the region and makes revealing cross-references that lead back to the organ building tradition in Vorarlberg and the Lake Constance region.

Organs and denominations

With his book, Meier succeeds in placing his topic, which at first glance may seem rather "local", in a context of social, confessional and religious-political conditions that extends far beyond Toggenburg (the "most important area of tension in the confessionally divided Confederation", according to the author).

In the post-Reformation period, its churches were initially often used equally by both denominations, but remained under the control of the Prince-Abbot of St. Gallen, which meant that the Reformed ban on organs could be circumvented to a certain extent "with Catholic blessing". At the same time as the organ returned to the church, the house organ also played an important role in everyday domestic family devotions in the spirit of pietism (a link between the house organ culture and the Zwinglian organ ban is therefore demonstrably false). The emergence of the fortepiano eventually displaced the house organs; however, in some places these were transferred to churches - at least as temporary solutions.

Conclusion

A book warmly recommended to all those interested in organs, which documents an important chapter in the ecclesiastical and secular organ history of our country against its confessional background in accordance with the latest state of research. It is to be hoped that in view of the manifold activities surrounding the Toggenburg house organ culture, a publication on the surviving, still largely unpublished music materials and the repertoire played could also follow!

Markus Meier: Geächtet, geliebt und geduldet - Die Orgel im nachreformatorischen Toggenburg, 400 p., Fr. 48.00, Chronos, Zurich 2025, ISBN 978-3-0340-1796-1 (E-Book free of charge)

If music were a sport, this adventurous, fast-paced and not least verbally challenging album would break records. It contains no less than 69 tracks - with a punky total duration of 36 minutes and 24 seconds. The shortest contribution lasts 7 seconds, the longest an almost elephantine 1'41".

Well, the Baden composer and saxophonist Christoph Gallio has never taken the path of least resistance, which has led to many uplifting, surprising experiences in the works of the Day & Taxi ensemble, which has existed in various formations since 1988. Nothing changes here, and yet everything is different. For over thirty years, Gallio has been particularly interested in the works of Pennsylvania-born author and art collector Gertrude Stein (1874-1946), whose circle in Paris later included Picasso, Hemingway, Scott Fitzgerald and Matisse. Her literary work is characterized above all by the musical, often repetitive structure of her sentences, the meaning of which can rarely be encapsulated by the usual means of linguistic cognition. Exactly: "A rose is a rose is a rose."

Shortest poetry, shortest composition

With Yet Dish is a long, posthumously published series of short poems. There is not enough space here to explain Stein's theories on words and their meaning - or our idea of their meaning. Suffice it to say that these mini-poems certainly trigger completely different associations and trains of thought in every ear. For example XLII: "A jell (sic) cake/A jelly cake/A jelly cake." Or XLV: "Copying Copying it in."

From the first to the last note, Gallio has tailored a highly concentrated short composition to each one, independent in its construction and tonal quality (i.e. inspired by the words and at the same time lending them a new dimension), which feels the words to the teeth and makes the contours sound. He is helped in this by the French-Bernese singer Sonia Loenne, who quietly reminds us of Dagmar Krause, the double bassist Vito Cadonau and the drummer Flo Hufschmid. The overall effect of the crystal-clear, polished miniatures is a kaleidoscopic shimmer in which the words spread like honey in tea.

Christoph Gallio's Stone Is A Rose Is A Stone Is A Stone - Yet Dish, Gertrude Stein. Sonia Loenne, voice; Christoph Gallio, soprano & alto saxophone; Vito Cadonau, double bass; Flo Hufschmid, drums & percussion. Hat Hut Records

The anthology Artificial intelligence of sounds offers a solid overview of the current discussions on artificial intelligence in the music industry. The topics range from technical backgrounds to questions of copyright protection, production and mediation to reflections on developments in art criticism. Most of the articles are easy to read. Highlights include Ludger Brümmer, who makes the statistical principle of Markov chains, which are important for AI, comprehensible, and Michael Schmidt with an overview of physical and digital tools for composition with the help of AI.

Dorte Lena Eilers provides entertaining anecdotes on the historical reactions of the arts pages to early attempts to compose and perform AI-inspired works. The critics' guild caught ChatGPT cold, she writes. The derision she pours on the Linz-based Ars Electronica and the Karlsruhe Center for Art and Media Technology, which "don't have the future under control", could also be directed at the texts in this book.

Although the blurb asks to what extent the "neat separation between work, arrangement, interpretation and performance still fits in with AI-supported musical practice", the topic is dealt with in a conventional feuilleton style that neatly separates these areas. The entire collection of texts thus seems somewhat nostalgic. It should be helpful for the generations that were socialized before the digital revolution. Digital and presumably soon AI natives will use YouTube and ChatGPT to gather their information on AI developments in the music industry. With all the associated risks. And this is probably the main strength of the book: You can trust the information practically without reservation.

Artificial Intelligence of Sounds - Ethics and Aesthetics of Digital Music Culture, edited by Michael Schmidt, 124 p., € 22.00, Edition text + kritik, Munich 2025 , ISBN 978-3-689-30030-2

"Not a second of idleness" can be found in Dieter Ammann's works, said his famous, now sadly deceased composer colleague Wolfgang Rihm. The fact is that the creations of the composer from Aargau, who teaches composition at the Lucerne University of Music, are extremely well received by audiences. His piano concerto Gran Toccata, which he worked on for several years, has already been performed worldwide with great success - also thanks to the phenomenal interpretation by Andreas Haefliger - and his viola concerto no templates also has a great chance of becoming a repertoire piece.

However, Ammann has become particularly well-known in the last decade with four works for large orchestra, in chronological order these are Boost (PREMIERE 2002), Core (PREMIERE 2002), Turn (UA 2010) and glow (PREMIERE 2016). The first three were commissioned by the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra and the Lucerne Festival, glow The Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra and the Bern Symphony Orchestra will perform together.

Improvisational habitus and meticulous care

Their captivating effect is based on several factors: on the one hand, you can sense Ammann's past as a jazz musician and improviser. Although the four pieces do not contain any improvised or aleatoric passages, but on the contrary are "worked out" down to the smallest detail, they have a rhythmic groove that constantly maintains the tension. Pierre Boulez characterized them as follows: "Ammann's orchestral works form a synthesis of seemingly improvisational habitus and meticulous care in their elaboration." This way of working makes him one of the "slowest" composers among his contemporaries. Ammann writes that composing also means "enduring the contradiction of being a seeker in a world whose creator you are at the same time". On the other hand, the works are very varied and sensual, as Ammann exploits all the possibilities of a modern orchestra in his orchestration, with percussion often featuring prominently.

Of course, very different music has left its mark on Ammann's work; one is momentarily reminded of John Adams' Short Ride in a Fast Machine, Mark-Anthony Turnages Three Screaming PopesGyörgy Kurtág's Stele or even Alexander Mossolov's Iron foundryi; some of the harmonies and timbres are reminiscent of works by French Impressionists or Olivier Messiaen. Ammann's music is not epigonal, however, but has its own personal signature. It is pleasing that he completely dispenses with quotations, which seem almost unavoidable with other composers at the moment.

Opulent in sound and played with brilliance

Naxos will release a CD of orchestral music by Ammann in 2023 (including Core, Turn and Boost) in outstanding, live-recorded interpretations by the Basel Sinfonietta under Baldur Brönnimann. The fact that the Schweizer Fonogramm label has now released these three works, supplemented by glowin studio recordings with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande under the direction of Jonathan Nott, who is familiar with Ammann's music, can be described as a stroke of luck. On the one hand, we now have two different recordings of some of the most interesting recent orchestral works composed in Switzerland; on the other hand, the new recording, opulent in sound and played with the greatest brilliance, is a real pleasure to listen to. The CD can be warmly recommended!

Dieter Ammann: glut, music for orchestra. Orchestre de la Suisse Romande; Jonathan Nott, conductor. Swiss Fonogram, SF0020

This LP almost makes you feel a little nostalgic. The agility of this bass playing, the nimble and at times wild actionism, a gesture of departure as we know it from the London free jazz scene, often tamed by structure that comes from new music. That was the 70s.

The British double bass player Barry Guy, who has lived in Switzerland with his wife, violinist Maya Homburger, for a long time, has performed in several scenes, including baroque music. He has performed in Donaueschingen several times. And here everything comes together in a unique way. The one-and-a-half LP (with A, B and C sides) has a few surprises in store.

Only Iannis Xenakis' Theraps has become a classic with its bruitistic and playful power. The other four composers, although they are all still alive, have faded somewhat into the background; it is worth rediscovering them. They knew how to use Guy's improvisational and theatrical qualities in a variety of ways: Bernard Rands, for example, with Memo or John Anthony Celona with Voicings. The voice of the double bass player joins in, whispering and whistling. The Italian Luca Lombardi has composed a political Essay with a quote from Paul Dessau, and the South Tyrolean Hubert Stuppner wrote with Expressions a rondo for a clown - which is wonderfully illustrated with photos in this LP edition: Here, the bass is playing away with itself from the tape - a fine example of the exuberant vitality that instrumental theater still possessed in those years.

Is that a thing of the past? In any case, it takes a virtuoso like Barry Guy, who incidentally has also created magnificent score graphics. Anaclasis from 2002, the only own and more recent work, realized here with his bass colleague Stefano Scodanibbio, is one of them: it opens up a rich playing field for the two musicians.

Barry Guy Plays. Luca Lombardi, Hubert Stuppner, Iannis Xenakis, Bernard Rands, John Anthony Celona and Barry Guy. Barry Guy, double bass. Maya Recordings MLP 2401

"Memory is something we performers don't like to talk about - mainly because we're afraid of losing it." This is what the Canadian pianist Angela Hewitt once said. The fact that professionals can play by heart for hours on end, usually without making mistakes, is basically a miracle. In fact, our brain memory is as fascinating as it is almost impossible to penetrate. Beyond the extremely complex and as yet barely researched interplay of hundreds of trillions of synapses, this also applies to the topic of "music and memory". Although it is immediately obvious, it is still difficult to grasp.

Music and memory by Melanie Unseld is a study book. The professor, who teaches in Vienna, aims to provide an overview of musicological perspectives on a subject that has been significantly promoted by cultural studies, for example by Jan Assmann's book The cultural memory. Identities therefore play a role, for example, where the subconsciously anchored Marseillaise or other hymns create national awareness. Other areas of research include aspects of canon formation and reception research. Why are some things remembered and why not? Why have these or those composers and far fewer female composers prevailed? Unseld naturally also touches on monument preservation and politics with such questions. She mentions, for example, the temporary ban on the Marseillaisewhich, due to its revolutionary potential, was to disappear from memory for a time, just like some works by Russian composers that were banned under Joseph Stalin.

It is not always easy to follow Unseld. She changes perspectives in minute detail. From the absolutely important role of music in the lifelong formative teenage years, she jumps to music didactics, dementia research or a falsifying memory that is commonplace in biographies. As if that were not enough, memories also play a role in the aesthetics of composition. Composers recall predecessors by quoting them. And: sonata form, variation movements, verses and choruses make it clear that music almost always plays on the keyboard of memory. Unseld sums up this particular narrow approach by writing about the experience of time: "Music can deal with time in three ways. It can construct time (through rhythms or the course of form, through composition), imagine time (for example with historical performance practice or music historiography) and make time perceptible (for example through the correlation to the heartbeat or when time passes while practicing or attending a concert)."

For the time being, it is impossible to foresee where this complex field of research will lead. It is nice that Unseld's excellently edited book moves away from cool formalism towards a more human approach to music. In the end, however, it cannot be overlooked that memory is (so far) difficult to grasp and is often very different from person to person. In this respect, music in turn has to do with memory, because both areas seem like a pudding that cannot be nailed to the wall.

Melanie Unseld: Music and Memory - A Study Book, 298 p., € 29.90, Rombach Wissenschaft, Baden-Baden 2025, ISBN 978-3-96821-886-1  

Estonian composer Arvo Pärt celebrated his 90th birthday this September. He himself says of his style, which emerged in the late 1980s: "Tintinnabulation is an area I sometimes delve into when I'm looking for answers - in my life, my music, my work. (...) The complex and multi-layered only confuses me, and I have to search for unity ..."

Two of his most recent choral works are the German Our Father and the motet O Holy Father Nicholas. He wrote the latter for the rededication of St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church at the National Shrine at Ground Zero in New York, which was destroyed on September 11, 2001. A sonorous, enriching ten minutes in typical Pärt a cappella style. The Our Father on the other hand, is rather atypical for him, but no less impressive. In addition to the previous versions for voice and piano and for choir, piano and string orchestra, Universal Edition Wien has now published this new version for choir and piano, which can also be performed by amateur choirs.

Arvo Pärt: Our Father, for mixed choir and piano, UE 38005, € 8.95, Universal Edition, Vienna

Id.: O Holy Father Nicholas, for mixed choir a cappella, UE 38114, € 13.95

For a century and a half, the magazine Music & Liturgy as the most important organ of Catholic church music in German-speaking Switzerland, reports on church music and its developments. It sheds light on everyday musical practice in liturgy and sacred concerts from various perspectives.

What began in 1876 as a paper called Choir guard began years later under the title Catholic church music and later Singing and making music in church services finally to Music & Liturgya magazine that covers a broad spectrum of church music life and creativity beyond the choral world. Since the beginning of this year, it is no longer in print, but as an online platform.

On March 14, 2026, a festive ceremony will take place at 1.30 pm in the Einsiedeln monastery church with three choirs and instrumental music. At the same time, three important figures in church music in Switzerland, Father Theo Flury, Abbot Urban Federer and Martin Hobi, will be honored for their outstanding commitment to church music with an Orlando di Lasso and Ambrosius Medal respectively. The general public is also cordially invited to this ceremony.

musicandliturgy.ch

From Stefan Muhmenthaler to Jakob Steiner: for each year, Ueli Steingruber has portrayed a personality who was awarded first prize in the Swiss Youth Music Competition (SJMW) between 1976 and 2025. The color or black and white photographs show them in an everyday situation today. The aim is to take a look at the big picture, at the consistency of the competition for 50 years: "Like a reliably nourishing river, it runs through the biographies of the Swiss music world and feeds it with motivated young talent." This is how Michael Eidenbenz praises the SJMW in the introductory text.

The volume, beautifully designed under the direction of Valérie Probst, invites you to look, read and reflect on the nature of music again and again.

50 - Swiss Youth Music Competition 1975 to 2025, published by the Swiss Youth Music Competition Foundation, 120 p., Fr. 35.00, ISBN 978-3-033-11409-8, info@sjmw.ch

The well-known guitarist David Russell described José Tomás (1934-2001) from the Spanish coastal town of Alicante as the most influential guitar teacher of the late 20th century. Tomás was not only a gifted guitarist and teacher, but also a diligent arranger of Renaissance, Baroque and other music. Pedro Jesús Gómez, like Russell a former student of Tomás, has now published a carefully compiled collection of transcriptions by the Iberian maestro with Editions Chanterelle.

The first focus is on 16th and 17th century lute music, with John Dowland featuring particularly prominently. With Couperin and Purcell it is then the harpsichord, with Bach's E minor suite BWV 996 the legendary lute piano, which is played on the guitar strings. From Haydn to the 20th century, there is arranged piano music by "classics" of the guitar repertoire such as Albéniz and Granados, but also by other greats of the (late) Romantic period such as Tchaikovsky and Ravel.

Tomás played mainly on an eight-string Ramirez guitar made especially for him, with which he could also play the low notes of a polychoral Renaissance or Baroque lute. His arrangements were also tailored to this instrument. Editor Gómez meticulously documents deviations from Tomás' manuscripts. In most of the pieces, one string is retuned (F sharp instead of G, D instead of E, even G instead of A). There are practically no gaps in the fingerings. The commentary is in English and Spanish. Anyone who enjoys interpreting lute and piano music on the guitar will be well served by this anthology.

The José Tomás Guitar Anthology, Arrangements for Guitar solo by José Tomás, ed. by Pedro Jesús Gómez, ECH 2725, € 22.50, Editions Chanterelle (Schott), Mainz

Ingo Bredenbach, the organist at Tübingen's Stiftskirche, makes it possible to Johann Sebastian Bach's piano lessons deep insights into his compositional development. The focus is on the works for keyboard instruments that accompanied the entire development of Bach's creativity, from his self-study to his main activity as the most important organ teacher of his era. Bredenbach's starting point are the copies of two organ works by Jan Adam Reincken and Dieterich Buxtehude, which he studied to acquire knowledge of harmony and some contrapuntal licenses. During the first half of his life, Bach enriched this basic knowledge of North German music by studying Italian music, especially the Italian concerto, in order to later pass on his experiences to his numerous apprentices. Bredenbach's study traces Bach's musical career in detail as a lifelong lesson, from learning to teaching.

The strengths of this practice-based study lie in the analytical details that an organist who wants to improvise in Bach's style must "grasp". More problematic is the sometimes selective consideration of existing literature. Sometimes insights are proclaimed that have long since been published elsewhere. The author lacked the organizing hand of a master like Bach, which would have helped him to consistently implement a clear concept from the wealth of complex information in the book in such a way that the fundamental is separated from the details and the important from the trivial. Nevertheless, if you want to learn something essential about Bach's music, you would be well advised to take Bredenbach's book, which is well worth reading, and the sheet music of all the works discussed.

Ingo Bredenbach: Johann Sebastian Bach's piano lessons. Bach as a learner and teacher, 519 p., € 59.00, Bärenreiter, Kassel 2024, ISBN 978- 3-7618- 2617-1

The Geneva-born composer Gasparo Fritz (1716-1783) became particularly well known for his chamber music. He came from a musical dynasty, received a profound musical education and studied the violin in Italy with Giovanni Battista Somis, a pupil of Arcangelo Corelli. It can be said that the author's Italian influence is also clearly audible in his style and is evident in the melodic design and structural clarity of his works.

Published by Michael Biehl and Claire Genewein in collaboration with Peter Schmid, the VI Sonata a Violino o Flauto Traversiere solo col Basso op. 2 are among the composer's most outstanding works. Players have the choice between violin and flute as solo instruments. In some passages, alternative versions are given depending on the instrument.

Character

Nicola Schneider explains in the preface that the concept of a musical rococo undoubtedly applies to these sonatas. They often manifest a form of elegance that is considered characteristic of the transitional phase to the Classical period. Baroque formal rigor is combined with gallant lines, clear melodies and dialogic interplay. The flute is often led in a lively musical dialog with the bass voice with a distinctly fine feeling for cantabile lines, for example in the Andante in the 1st Sonata.

All of Gasparo Fritz's sonatas display galant elements, for example in ornamentation, lightness, dance-like rhythms and a certain grace. In addition, colorfulness is created by the numerous written-out ornaments as well as a longer composed cadenza in the Adagio of the 2nd sonata. The rapid changes of affect and the varied articulation often have the narrative effect of a story with many facets. The movement models are mostly in three movements and sometimes lead to a playful final movement with virtuoso variations, such as in the 4th sonata.

Echoes

Two significant parallels to other flute sonatas that last for several bars are striking: The first bars of the Andante from the 4th sonata are similar to the opening theme of Johann Sebastian Bach's Sonata in B minor BWV 1030 and in the cantabile Largo of the 2nd sonata there is an audible echo of the Siciliano from the Flute Sonata in E flat major BWV 1031 attributed to Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach.

Source situation

The first publication of these sonatas to feature a suspended continuo was the work by Frank Martin. Michael Biehl's intention with his continuo realization is to give a wider audience the opportunity to interpret the work and points out that this is only one possibility and that the figures could not have been written by Gaspard Fritz, but by his editor, as no autograph of the sonatas exists.

The lavish edition published by Schmid & Genewein in Zurich is based on the original print with an upper part and a figured bass, which is kept in the Zentralbibliothek Zürich, and also adopts its dynamic indications. It includes as scores the upper part with the continuo set out by Michael Biehl and, in accordance with the original, the upper part with figured bass, in two copies for the convenience of performers. A detailed critical report with numerous notes on the sonatas rounds off this new edition, which is successful in every respect.

Gasparo Fritz: VI Sonate a Violino o Flauto Traversiere solo col Basso, edited by Michael Biehl and Claire Genewein, SG010, Fr. 54.00, Schmid & Genewein, Zurich

Some people say that heavy metal is close to classical music. Well, that probably varies from case to case. In any case, virtuosity on the instrument or in the voice can be found in quite a few metal bands. What's more, many of the musicians in this sometimes amusing scene have undergone professional training.

Keyboardist Thomas Hiebaum sees himself as the composer of the Aargau symphonic metal band Deep Sun, which has now been in existence for almost 20 years. On their new album, the quintet mixes Storyteller all kinds of things together. Here the typically distorted metal guitar with its hard rhythmic riffs and the drum set with its fast bass attacks. Then there are the dense keyboard sounds, often reminiscent of a string orchestra, and the high soprano voice of Debora Lavagnolo, always moving in sustained melodies.

Lavagnolo writes the lyrics himself. They are about mysticism, about - as the song descriptions say - the "triumph of rebirth", about "stories from the forests or from the lakes" or about the "irrefutable strength of women". One suspects that a certain pathos, which is probably inscribed in symphonic metal, is not far away and it is also redeemed in the form of dense sound clusters, which are also heavily built up with a lot of reverb and compression. So: there are many virtuoso interludes from the guitarist and the drummer; also many episodes to sing along to and invitations to sway with a "feel-good factor". But at some point you think: a little less of everything would probably have done in the end.

Deep Sun: Storyteller. Power Blast Records