Halvcirkel’s art is characterised by playing that positions ‘being human’ over perfection. Integral to their music is the way that their instruments weave and ‘braid’. It’s like a conversation, a discussion, in flux. Halvcirkel’s power is the product of this synergy. Their ability to agree to disagree. Their differing viewpoints reflecting the world around us and realising beauty when alighting on common ground.

Halvcirkel’s new album, ‘Vida’, takes its title from a small Swedish village, the location of Bettina’s summerhouse. Now signed to FatCat Records’ modern-classical imprint 130701, it’s the first to focus on the trio’s own compositions. Each track, however, pays tribute / homage to their influences, collaborators, and their journey so far.

‘København’ harnesses a hope, stirred by the smell of spring in a seesawing, sea shanty-like viola and violin movement, whistling and wheezing, the joyful patterns of repetition recalling Terry Riley - the artist who moulded their ‘non-hierarchical’ sound. Riley invited Halvcirkel his Californian mountain ranch. In part, this inspired the first single ‘Ridge’ - it’s a cap-tip to a café they frequented whilst also saluting another Halvcirkel collaborator, Craig Leon, and Nommos, his interplanetary dance of the Dogon people.

‘Nidingen’ is named after a lighthouse on the west coast of Sweden, where Nicole spent her childhood summers. ‘Good Medicine’ is another tribute to Riley. Playing only pizzicato, Halvcirkel describe the piece as a humorous ‘self-portrait’. ‘Sænk Kun Dit Hoved, Du Blomst’, a reading of Danish violinist / composer / conductor Carl Nielsen’s poetic, metaphorical mediation on sleep and death, also features tightly spun short, stuttered, folk-flavoured phrases. ‘Allting faller’ signifies the cycles of change we are subject to, and unable to alter.

‘Heiður Himinn’ is an homage to the Icelandic winter, and improvised col legno, with just the wooden side of the bow. The Arvo Part-esque ‘Vetraský’ too pictures those sensational seasonal Nordic pink skies. ‘We Like Our Friends’, all repetitive interlocking riffing, seems to translate the energy of techno and house. Like Alexander Balanescu’s arrangements of Kraftwerk, repaying the minimalist debt.

‘Småland’, while a paean to off-the-grid life, is actually a dramatic tango, worthy of Astor Piazzolla’s Zero Hour. The intimate ‘Speech’, on the other hand, audibly pauses for split seconds as fingers find their positions, in the same way that we stop to search for the right words.

LP pressed on maroon coloured vinyl.

Tracks:
1. København
2. Nidingen
3. Good Medicine
4. Allting faller
5. Ridge
6. Heiður Himinn
7. We Like Our Friends
8. Småland
9. Vetraský
10. Sænk Kun Dit Hoved, Du Blomst
11. Speech