Jesper Nordin

Introduction
Jesper Nordin is a leading Swedish composer born July 6th, 1971 in Stockholm, Swedish. His music consists of traditional Swedish folk music, rock music, electroacoustics, and improvisation. His music is known for his extreme emotional impact and is performed all over the world.

Work Analysis
The work I am going to be analyzing is Klotho. This work is a for marimba, cello, and percussion quartet and was composed for Mika Takehara, Åsa Strid and the Kroumata percussion ensemble who premiered the piece in 2000. Nordin describes Klotho as one of three goddesses of fate in ancient Greek Mythology. Klotho is the goddess of the present which Nordin says he tried to capture the most up. Nordin includes drums from three different continents to form a basis for the melodic instruments. The marimba plays a specific solo part throughout the piece with the cello creating a grand background and the drums keeping a steady rhythm. The cello becomes the main focus almost halfway through the piece. The drums stop and the marimba creates a subtle rhythm. At 5:30 the drums return with a louder rhythm and continue to the end. There are different rhythmic patterns played throughout the piece. The ideas of "present time" is represented also through the technique of improvisation.

Comparisons
Jesper Nordin as drawn influences from traditional folk music of his home country along with modern rock music and the use of electroacoustics.

Observations
I appreciated the use of 3 different cultural drums throughout this piece and the cello was quite beautiful. His use of synthesizers and electroacoustic instruments is fascinating however hard to analyze. Nordin's description and use of improvisation to represent time was a great idea and the concept of time and the present is a great subject to represent with music.