Halvcirkel by Halvcirkel

The string quartets debut album was recorded in a wooden summerhouse in the north of Denmark in 2016. The album consist of standard classical repertoire, that all has a long standing tradition attached to it. Halvcirkel demonstrates a new way of hearing the music: movements are single handedly picked out, new transitions are formed and the whole album is one-takes, recorded in a living room up close to the instruments for bringing closeness and intimacy to the sound. The album is characterised by its raw and unpolished sound, where all details are exposed: the bow meets the string, fingers tapping the fingerboard; as if you would be sitting next to them.

”...A new generation of classical artists question the cult of perfection that holds sway in the neck of the woods. Analogue records - softer, warmer, more human and more vulnerable are all part of the project. The Danish collective Halvcirkel is a physical manifestation of that concept, whose self-titled LP takes aim at notions of perfection on every level. We are presented with a sound picture equivalent to that corner-of-a-dark-room flash photography now ubiquitous in fashion magazines; the sound sounds purposefully uneven, cocking its ear towards different corners of the ensemble according to the gait of each score. The closeness and intensity of that sound picture, all the more human when exhaled from an analogue source, has a different resonance away from the nervous edge of Shostakovich. The hesitance in Pärt ́s Fratres if particularly affecting when you’re listening close, as is the fragility with which the outline of Nielsen ́s song I’m often glad (Tit er jag glad) is traced. Best of all, perhaps, is the view we get off Glass ́s Closing, as if from under the belly of the composer’s shuffling quadruped. The quartet’s sparing use of vibrato reinforces the idea of a bedroom performance as much as the close sound does.”

- Andrew Mellor in The Gramophone, 2018


”Marvellously beguiling and original, intimate and intense.. A different experience, but every bit as intense and evocative, emphasising what a versatile and multifaceted ensemble Halvcirkel is. In many ways it is cheeky, some may even say provocative, to play a Shostakovich quartet in this manner. To my mind it is a stroke of genius and exquisitely played, to boot. For at its core, Halvcirkel is a string quartet of a very high order of achievement, and this is evident in everything they do. Pärt’s Fratres follow, this time with the quartet on their own. The string quartet version has been recorded several times, but this reading by Halvcirkel rivals the best I’ve heard. The record ends suitably enough with Closing from Glass’s string quartet no. 3. Soundtrack music from the film, Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters, and a grippingly beautiful end to a most beguiling debut.”

- from Klassisk ifølge Sørensen by Henrik Sørensen, 2017

Halvcirkel is a Danish string trio founded in Copenhagen in 2015, consisting of violist Mika Persdotter, violinist Bettina Marie Ezaki, and cellist Nicole Hogstrand. Their sound is marked by the intricate interplay of their instruments, which blend seamlessly to create a dynamic musical dialogue driven by contrast, tension and resolution, reflecting a contemporary take on classical music.

halvcirkel.com
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