Maja Bugge - No Exit

The Norwegian cellist Maja Bugge's second solo album No Exit was recorded inside Standedge canal tunnel by Herv� Perez. The music on this album is mainly improvised and responds to the 3 � mile long tunnels unique acoustic and sounds. She is also using the history of the site as an inspiration echoing the rhythmical patterns of feet moving the boats through tunnels in the 19th century and the sound of stones being carved out of the ground 200 years ago.

This results in a haunting, meditative and expressive improvisation. It is a homage to a unique site and its sound. The lone cello responds to the unpredictability of the space and together they make something.

Attentive to the acoustic character of the structure and space, her music also resonates with rhythmic and textural evocations of physical labour once required for the tunnel's construction under the hills and its daily operation. While relatively austere...No Exit meets the basic Discus prerequisite of imaginative vitality. - JULIAN COWLEY, THE WIRE

Maja Bugge - cello