This release marks a musical homecoming for Sara Ovinge, since she has chosen a slightly more convoluted career path than most violinists. Sara has sought out and immersed herself in contemporary music, Iranian music, composition, improvisation, and art-pop amongst several other musical pursuits. Her entire M.O. points to a strong and intrinsic need to be a 'co-creating' musician, one who leaves her mark on the musical expression in a more comprehensive way than simply playing the notes on the stand.
This record is no exception, being a result of her commissioning, her curating, and a substantial dose of willpower.
Meeting with Kjetil Bjerkestrandin 2019, Sara found something she was looking for. He is the epitome of the symbiotic musician, drawing on experience and inspirations from a wide range of musical styles, from rock, pop through to contemporary. He describes the composition process as one part search for fixation points in a series of possible events, and one part exploration of friction caused by the union of the elastic and the mechanical.
A theme that Sara aimed to pursue in the project was the juxtaposition of the electronic and the organic. Philip Glass's 2nd Piano Concerto is arranged for synthesizer and strings, a kind of updated version of Vivaldi's string orchestra with continuo. But where previous recordings have gone for an electronic sound resembling the baroque harpsichord, Sara wanted to create a more electro-acoustic soundscape, thus achieving a common thread between the two works.
Pacy, repeated motifs and catchy, fragmented melodies are contrasted with electronic humming landscapes. � BBC Music Magazine; Recording 5 STARS, Performance 3 STARS
the Glass is a real concerto, and [�ving] is magnificent. [�]. Her rich and beautiful tone in more cantabile passages is balm to the mind. [�] Listening to [the disc] is unalloyed pleasure. � MusicWeb International
The label LAWO is establishing itself as questing, infinitely curious, and ambitious. No release shows these aspects better than this. [�] Violinist Sara �vinge is superb, both in lyrical rumination and cumulative repetition � Classical Explorer
