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Top 10 for Dec

Anna Thorvaldsdottir - In the Light of Air / Q2: Album Of the Week

Anna Thorvaldsdottir is familiar with looking far and wide. After all, the composer is from Iceland, a fact that has become a kind of musical genre (and supplier of killer album covers). She knows the lay of her mythical land, and she's skilled at using large washes of sound to steadily map it: Her debut album "Rhízōma" was recorded largely by the Iceland Symphony Orchestra. The New York Philharmonic recently named her its Kravis Emerging Composer, commissioning her to use its mighty ranks as a canvas. If other composers aim to describe the individual bird, she's known for handling the flock.

But if the flock dissolves, can Thorvaldsdottir's birds stand on their own? Her recent music has been saying yes, and confidently. Unlike "Rhízōma," her recent releases-2014's "Aerial" and this month's "In the Light of Air"-show that she doesn't rely on an orchestra to build cacophonous spaces.  READ THE FULL Q2 ARTICLE