Award-winning musician and composer Helge Iberg releases the second of two albums in early 2018: Life Music. Life Music consists of two works: a ‘quartet+1’ on a grand scale, as well as a concerto for solo violin and strings. The two works relate to different aspects of life: The Micro Cosmos (our individual destiny) and The Macro Cosmos (the existential challenges of mankind).

The micro cosmos is explored in the Quartet through eight movements - their assigned titles varying from the descriptive to the absurd. As a whole the movements are an analogy for life itself, from the first ‘Tentativo (First Steps)’ to the last ‘Discesa (Descent/Exit)’. Although playful and vital, the music also exudes dissolution and death at other times. The moods vary between the constructive and the destructive, from the safe to the dramatic.

With Sisyphus’ Dance of Endless Struggle, performed by the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra with Atle Sponberg as soloist, Iberg thematizes existentialism. The mythic figure King Sisyphus was cursed to push a boulder up a mountain, only for it to roll back down and he to repeat the action forever. A parallel to the meaninglessness of life; or the constant pursuit of perfection through the arts.