Eirik Raude: I Ching

Raw power, refined structures and meditative tranquillity. Percussionist Eirik Raude releases his debut CD as soloist with music that reaches well beyond percussion fans.

The title track I Ching written by Per Nørgård draws inspiration from the the 3000 years old divination manual Book of Change. This masterpiece is a display of all varieties of energy, interpreted into music. The total range of the percussion arsenal is employed in this piece, from the biggest to the smallest instruments. In some sections the complexity and energy of this music makes it is hard to believe that it is only one man playing. But there is also the meditative calm of the third movement, with the calimba “thumb-piano” as the only instrument.

Magnus Lindberg”s Metal Work is just that: the blending of metal from the percussion instruments and the pipes of the accordion. Frode Haltli, winner of Norwegian Grammy 2002 for Contemporary Music, joins in for a ferocious piece of music written in West Berlin in the anarchistic atmosphere there just before the wall was taken down. For the final piece Eirik Raude is alone on stage again, and Mechanics I is a virtuoso piece written for solo marimba.

Although this is his debut as a soloist on CD, Eirik Raude is a merited soloist and chamber musician. In 2001 he won a place in the INTRO Classical program of Rikskonsertene in Norway, an appointment resulting in many concerts all around the country. On Thursday November 18th 2004 Raude is soloist with his own orchestra, the Oslo Philharmonics, performing the orchestral version of I Ching – For a Change. Tours in Europe and South-America are next up for a very interesting young performer that brings percussion playing up where it should be – all about music.