Nordic Voices both ‘beautiful and insane’

Think Scandinavia and you might picture wintry landscapes with angular shards of ice, crystalline skies and crisp air. There is something of those qualities in the music of Nordic Voices, a Norwegian a cappella sextet that will appear at 8 tonight at the Minsky Recital Hall at the Maine Center for the Arts.

The ensemble of Nordic natives debuted in 1996 at a concert in Edinburgh, Scotland, where the combination of classically trained voices and electrifying register of expression established an instant place for the group on the festival as well as church music circuit. Described by critics as “beautiful and insane” and “refined to the fingertips,” Nordic Voices has since traveled throughout Norway and internationally with its unique repertoire of medieval, folk, religious, classical and contemporary music.

A new CD “Sense and nonSense” – the group’s first commercial recording – delivers the texture, carefulness and complexity that seems both bigger and more delicate than six voices.

“We use voices in an unexpected manner with shouting and whistling and finger snapping,” said Trond Olav Reinholdtsen, the group’s bass singer just a day after arriving from Norway for an American tour that includes stops in New York, Georgia and Alabama. “But we also do romantic music and Nordic folk tunes.”

Reinholdtsen explained that the sound of Nordic Voices is a blend of solo and unified sound, using voices in percussive patterns as well as melodic riffs to engage the audience in the intricacies of the music. The effect, he said, is seriously sophisticated music that is often humorous. Programs typically include works by Orlando di Lasso, Henry Purcell, Johannes Brahms, Oliver Messiaen and contemporary composers.

The newer compositions, said soprano and founding member Tone Braaten, are experimental and fragmented, pushing the singers to use their voices as pure sound that can be both jarring and exciting. The roots of the group’s signature style, she added, actually come from church music, a common background for the singers.

“The best place to do vocal music in Norway is in churches,” said Braaten, who also has a solo career. “But we also like to do contemporary music because it uses the voice with just sound and words used instrumentally.”

Nordic music is, traditionally speaking, a cooler sound, and Nordic Voices, whose members are in their 30s, taps into that custom and strives to push its music to the more hip meaning of “cool.” It is, the singers said, both “analytical and affectionate.” At tonight’s concert, they plan to perform religious music and recent works, a combination that has won them fans with a broad palate of musical tastes.

Nordic Voices will perform at 8 p.m. tonight in Minsky Recital Hall at the Maine Center for the Arts. Members of the group will join NEWS writer Alicia Anstead immediately after the show for Back Talk, an onstage conversation about their art. For tickets, call 581-1755.