Sunleif Rasmussen (b. 1961) is the undisputed pioneer of Faroese classical music, and this album features some of the Faroe Islands’ most talented performers, the new music ensemble Aldubáran and violist Jákup Lützen. Recorded in Tórshavn, the music they present here pivots on Rasmussen’s deft harbouring of momentum and energy, his gift for transformative textures, and his closeness to the unique musical traditions and landscapes of the Islands themselves – one of the most beautiful, distinctive and nature-rich archipelagos on earth.

Rasmussen learned notation from his grandmother and a local teacher and absorbed the tunes of the Faroese folk tradition and hymnal by osmosis. As a teenager, he was sent to learn the basics of music theory in Norway, and in 1988 made the journey to sovereign Denmark, where he studied composition with Ib Nørholm at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen.

Rasmussen remains a dynamic figure on his country’s music scene. He has been responsible for the country’s first opera and its first Nordic Council Music Prize, awarded in 2002 for his Symphony no.1 (the first symphony by a Faroese composer).