EMP 13

Upon the work’s CD release in 2009, musicologist Inge Bruland described the four movements in the liner notes as ‘coherent and organic serial and minimalist works’, and reflected that ‘the sounds appear otherworldly, while also paving the way for emotions that perhaps dwell most readily in the unconscious – ominous or enchanted’.

Himmelrummet is dominated by rushing wind-like noises created using filtered white noise, and short electronic tones enriched with reverberation – a sonic atmosphere reminiscent of, or perhaps directly sourced from, Pade’s earlier work The Vikings (1961). Additionally, recordings of prepared piano appear, pitched radically upward and layered with short echo effects. The section lacks a clear compositional development, instead unfolding as a kind of ‘state music’ with no defined beginning or end.

In Havkongens slot, the sine tones from Syv cirkler are clearly audible, seemingly unaltered but now mixed together and heavily processed with artificial reverberation. Eventyrland continues with similar material, though here the tones are filtered to retain only the mid-range frequencies, resulting in a more glass-like sound quality.

In the final section, Kong Vinter, the prepared piano returns, this time in a more extensive and noise-oriented manner. The movement appears to reuse and transform material from earlier in the piece, but distinguishes itself by hinting at an actual melodic line.

The overall mood of 4 Illustrations is dramatic and dark. The heavy filtering – possibly employed to mask tape noise – and the pronounced use of reverb result in a homogenous and somewhat ‘dead’ sonic character. The digital technology itself is not used in an overtly audible way, and paradoxically, much of the work sounds as if it could just as easily have been produced using Pade’s earlier analogue equipment.