GLÖDEN

Want to order a physical copy? Send an email to info@sommarorkester.se and we’ll send it to you!

Our debut album GLÖDEN is a tribute to the versatility of classical music as well as a dance on the edge of other genres.
Swedish folk music dressed in classical attire, an imaginary Balkan dance straight out of the world of Tintin, and Polish hard rock minimalism. Although the repertoire was initially chosen based on a kind of "best of" principle—where the orchestra simply wanted to record the most fun and best music we knew—a clear common thread has emerged over time: Classical fusion.
Never heard of it before? Thought so.

On the album, we’re joined by the successful folk music duo Vågspel, consisting of Alice Klint and Kristin Kennemark. Together, we perform the newly composed suite Allt som var (“All That Was”) with music by Alice Klint, arranged by our artistic director Carl Vallin. The suite is on one hand a semi-sentimental coming-of-age story, and on the other, an optimistic musical journey where traditional Swedish sounds are filtered through both classical traditions and modern rhythms. All in pursuit of the question: How hard can a string orchestra really groove?

Syldavian Dances by Johan Ullén is a piece the orchestra commissioned for its 10th anniversary in 2023. Johan travels to the fictional country of Syldavia, known from the Tintin comic books, to discover (invent) the region’s folk music. He notes peculiar rhythmic patterns, harmonic quirks, traditional instruments, and wild, festive dances. Back home in Stockholm (and in reality), he composes—just as Béla Bartók did after his travels—a suite for string orchestra that resembles nothing else.

Last but not least: Sinfonietta “Polonia” by Maciej Balenkowski, which won the orchestra’s 2020 composition competition SICC. Though the piece is dedicated to Wojciech Kilar, the young Balenkowski (born in 1993) offers a completely unique take on classical Polish minimalism. The work begins with a vibrant, energetic opening and steadily builds in intensity for ten minutes. The musicians in the orchestra each have individual parts, and in many ways, the piece is written as much for 21 soloists as for a single (1) organism.