HarpColumn
September/October 2015
volume 24, issue 2
ISSN: 1083-6128
$7.95
practical news for practical harpists
inside:
cracking the
Nutcracker
and
Katryna
Tan
different
by design
our ultimate
college harp
guide
cd review
verses worth a listen
Uno Vesje and Fire Pink Trio find
the music in poetry.
by Alison Young
POEMS FROM A CITY
Uno Vesje, harp; Sweet Sound Records, 2014.
Rating:
Harp Column
• September/October 2015
I
48
If you’ve ever taken
a walk alone through
a city street—whether
your own or a place
new to you—this
music will sound
strangely familiar and
comforting as though
you were not by yourself, but joined by a
friend, perhaps your
bestie, your soulmate.
Poems from a City are
musings in sound and
light, the corners of
buildings that slowly
reveal what’s hidden, the people we pass sometimes
only catching their humanity in a quick glance
before we look away and move on towards our destinations.
Norwegian harpist Uno Vesje has walked many a
street, perhaps getting more a stare than a glance as
he has wheeled his harp through Oslo and New
York. An internal and contemplative mood wafts
over us at the opening of his disc, perfectly capturing
the solitude-amongst-many we feel in crowded,
“It is, I would guess, what every harpist wants
to do with their strings. The effects are stunning, the resolution is a breath of fresh air.”
noisy places.
“Every track on the album is a World Premiere
Recording,” Vesje proudly states. He uses the opening
prelude to invite us to open ourselves to a kind of
wonder of sound in this forward-moving and optimistic beginning. I see myself arriving in the new city
and placing a potted flowering plant on the windowsill of my walk-up.
The beat gets heavier and the mood as well, in
“Footsteps in an Empty Room.” With a tango-tinged
beat and drumbeat a la harpist, it feels as though this
new arrival has needed to stay indoors from the rain
and finds herself in some new environs. Live music
where it was unexpected perhaps? Or was that just
the radio?
“Next Stop” brings in all the chaos of the street.
Things are on the move again until returning to a
perch in “Window Dreamer,” a slow, touching adagio.
The title track is a suite of five movements, beginning with the city awakening. Introspective and
moody, Uno lets the strings buzz and ring, creating a
pleasing clash of timbres, almost like a drawn out
raga. This leads to maybe the oddest track on the
disc, “Please don’t…” It is, I would guess, what every
harpist wants to do with their strings. The effects are
stunning, the resolution is a breath of fresh air.
“The harp is the voice of an angel,” harpists likely
have heard at least a few times a week. But imagine
this heavenly sound juxtaposed with the helplessness
and anger of heavily accented locals where every
other word is of the four-letter variety. Is there beauty
in the rhythm of this? Shockingly, yes.
A stunningly beautiful, eye-opening and deeply
touching album. Life—in all its complexity,
inscrutability, and inevitability—can somehow still
hold us in its thrall when heard through the voice of
Uno Vesje.