Benedicte Maurseth

Benedicte Maurseth is a pre-eminent player of the Norwegian Hardanger fiddle. Unlike the conventional violin, a Hardanger fiddle has four or five additional sympathetic strings that resonate, the undertones creating a darkly polyphonic sound, prized by film composers seeking a more plaintive, other-worldly effect.

Maurseth exploits her instrument's ability to induce a meditative, trance-like atmosphere through complex rhythms and repetitive motifs. Most of the tracks here are tunes from the 18th and 19th centuries but, rather than simply playing each twice through as would be traditional, Maurseth extends and improvises, adding to their hypnotic quality.

The mystical minimalism of Górecki's music comes to mind, especially in the two original compositions, ‘Etterdønning’ (Reverberation) and ‘Og Fargane Skiftar På Fjorden’ (And the Colours Shift on the Fjord). But I was reminded most of the 1994 album Officium by another Norwegian musician – saxophonist Jan Garbarek. That was recorded in an Austrian monastery; Maurseth's, fittingly, in Strandebarm Church, Hardanger. If Maurseth's seventh album is by no means an easy listen, no one can doubt the honesty and sincerity of this transcendent music.