#international-contemporary-ensemble — Public Fediverse posts

Anna Thorvaldsdottir – Aerial / In the Light of Air / Aequa (2014-18, Iceland)

Our next spotlight is on numbers 932-934 on The List, submitted by mimo.

Once upon a time, somewhere on the Internets, I read someone confidently “guarantee” that they didn’t “need” to hear three albums by Icelandic experimental/modern classical composer Anna Thorvaldsdottir before they died, in response to seeing an albums-to-hear-before-you-die list that included three Thorvaldsdottir albums.[1] Now, I don’t know this person’s circumstances or soothsaying abilities, so perhaps such a statement is indeed true for them and their particular definition of “need” and/or “guarantee”. What wasn’t clear, however, is if this guarantee was meant to be read as also applying to other people. And so, in the interest of, umm, science – and because The List we look at here just happens to have three albums by or featuring the music of the very same Anna Thorvaldsdottir AND I had not yet heard three Thorvaldsdottir albums previously – I decided to run a mini-experiment to see if listening to three Thorvaldsdottir albums could, in fact, be called a pre-mortem need.

Hypothesis: If listening to three albums by Icelandic composer Anna Thorvaldsdottir improves someone’s life, it could in fact be called a “need” to listen to those three albums while that person is alive.

Study Design: Longitudinal study in which self-reported well-being is measured before and after listening to three albums of music by Anna Thorvaldsdottir. Due to time constraints, only one subject and a single set of three albums were included in the study.

Observations:

Album 1: Anna Thorvaldsdottir – Aerial (2014) (Discogs, Bandcamp)

Prior to listening to the first album, the subject rated their well-being as “not very good”. After listening to the first album, the subject noted “oh hey that was pretty cool, glad I listened with good headphones”, “‘Aeriality’ in particular got me out of my head for a bit, the Iceland Symphony Orchestra kicks ass”, and “‘Tactility’ would be amazing to see performed live”.

Album 2: International Contemporary Ensemble – In the Light of Air: ICE Performs Anna Thorvaldsdottir (2015) (Discogs, Bandcamp)

After listening to the second album, the subject noted “that first album was a nice way to dip into what Thorvaldsdottir is all about, but THIS is how she should be heard – a single, unified work” and “that last movement! oof, so good”. When asked how they would rate their well-being, they replied “hey, can you play that one again but turn it up?”.

Album 3: International Contemporary Ensemble – Aequa: International Contemporary Ensemble Performs Anna Thorvaldsdottir (2018) (Discogs, Bandcamp)

After listening to the third album, the subject noted “the second one was my favourite, but I think it took me listening to a collection and then a unified work to appreciate another collection, it’s like the appreciation builds with each album”, “‘Aequilibria’ is a stunner, isn’t it?”, “I think the person who added these three albums to The List knew exactly what they were doing”, and “may I have another?”. When asked how they would rate their well-being, they replied “meh” (which is approximately 1.5 steps higher on the well-being scale than “not very good”).

Findings: Listening to three albums of music by Anna Thorvaldsdottir coincided with increased self-reported well-being. Also, enjoyment of a Thorvaldsdottir album seemed to increase with each subsequent Thorvaldsdottir album, implying that listening to more was more enjoyable than less.

Potential Limitations and Recommendations: The lone subject has a bias for being rather open to finding new music and is particularly easy to manipulate when it comes to music recommendations directly from Fedizens, and therefore their experience may not be generalizable to other music listeners. Also, only one set of three Thorvaldsdottir albums was included in the analysis; a different selection of albums could change the findings. Recommend more subjects – whether they have previously heard Thorvaldsdottir or not – also listen to the same set listened to in this study, and then, ideally, expand to a new set of three.

1. Okay, the list was ours, i.e., The List. ↩︎

Please note this post was originally published April 11, but was republished due to a blog glitch.