Philip Glass wrote A Descent into the Maelstrom in 1985 for an Australian dance company and later recorded it with the original Philip Glass Ensemble. It was one of the last projects for that group. The work is based on a short story by Edgar Allan Poe, who was really as influential in speculative fiction as he was in the mystery story; the tale deals with two fishermen who are dragged down by a deadly current off Norway's Lofoten Islands. The work is very much of a piece with Glass' other big mystical works of the period, ...
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Philip Glass wrote A Descent into the Maelstrom in 1985 for an Australian dance company and later recorded it with the original Philip Glass Ensemble. It was one of the last projects for that group. The work is based on a short story by Edgar Allan Poe, who was really as influential in speculative fiction as he was in the mystery story; the tale deals with two fishermen who are dragged down by a deadly current off Norway's Lofoten Islands. The work is very much of a piece with Glass' other big mystical works of the period, most of all Koyaanisqatsi, and it seems to have lain fallow simply because it was overshadowed by these other works in the U.S. However, film director Jan Vardøen decided to film the story, with several happy results. First, the film takes place on location, as it were, in northern Norway, and better still, the director turned once again to the Glass score, commissioning a full-orchestra arrangement from composer Alexander Waaktaar. The result in purely musical terms works well: the...
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