Dråper
In Dråper, Christina Sandsengen is showcasing her exceptional talent as a soloist and composer. In this captivating piece, she performs as a soloist with the renowned Norwegian Radio Orchestra, known for their rich and vibrant sound. The single highlights Sandsengen’s exquisite classical guitar skills, blending seamlessly with the orchestra’s dynamics. Dråper, which translates to “Drops” in English, evokes a sense of serenity and emotional depth, reflecting Sandsengen’s artistry and musical sensitivity. The composition stands out for its cinematic feeling, meditative melodies, imitation of church belles and teardrops, and harmonious and dynamic interplay between the soloist and the orchestra.
Listen to Dråper here!
Solace
Solace is Christina Sandsengen’s debut album as a composer and the album highlights her technical skills as well as a wide range of contrasts, emotions and feelings. Sometimes dark and dramatic, then suddenly brighter and melodic.
Christina says this about the album:
Of course, solace means comfort in a time of sadness or despair. But with these compositions, I don’t only mean to comfort. I also mean to give sound to sadness and despair itself—and fury, shock and anguish. With my guitar, and with layers of drums and piano and broom sticks and fire, I want here to unfold the many layers of my perseverance. I want to make a raw, honest portrait of that feeling of trembling, tumbling—when something almost mythical takes hold of your chest, so you are hardly able to breathe. But when I was a girl, I discovered that my guitar can breathe for me, that it can make a language beneath language, for a resonance that travels from fingertip right to the bone. I hope you feel here, as I do, the fragments of relief—and, yes, solace.
Listen to Solace here!
After (single edit)
After is the second single from the album Solace by Christina Sandsengen, her debut album as a composer. The album contains a wide range of emotions like sorrow and anxiety, but After is a caressive and mellow tune inviting the listener into contemplation and melancholy.
Listen to After here!
Solace (single)
Solace, the first single from Christina’s new album that marks her debut as a composer is released on NXN Recordings 13th of December 2022. When playing her own repertoire she shows more of her personality, and the pieces resonates a spectrum of emotions such as fear, despair and darkness but also light.
Listen to Solace here!
CLAIR DE LUNE
“Music is the expression of the movement of the waters, the play of curves described by changing breezes.” – Claude Debussy.
Clair de Lune is recorded in legandary EastWest Studios in Hollywood CA, and released on RMN Classical, and is the much-expected release by Christina Sandsengen which follows her debut release that received widespread critical acclaim.
Clair de Lune, the timeless work written by Claude Debussy is out now on all the digital outlets and platforms!
SHADES & CONTRASTS
Performed with a deeply lyrical feel for melody and an unerringly virtuosic sense of tension, Sandsengen’s recording is an intensely personal statement. As she comments:
“in hearing it, you know me”.
Born in 1987, Norwegian guitarist Christina Sandsengen is already established as one of the leading European guitarists of her generation. Her debut release for Odradek pays tribute both to her Scandinavian roots and to the great Iberian guitar tradition, represented by such classics as Francisco Tárrega’s ‘Lágrima’ and Isaac Albéniz’s ‘Asturias’.
In addition, Sandsengen’s programme of expressive and colourful 19th and 20th century repertoire features music by two South American mavericks: Agustín Barrios Mangoré, the celebrated “Paganini of the guitar from the jungles of Paraguay” whose Bachian depiction of a gloomy Cathedral is contrasted with Àgua e Vinho (Water and Wine) from the pen of the uniquely creative Brazilian Egberto Gismonti.
Latin flamboyance makes way for a Nordic nocturne in the jazzy ‘Late at Night’ by her compatriot Norwegian guitar professor Sven Lundestad. The most substantial work is Carlo Domeniconi’s ‘Koyunbaba’ suite which Sandsengen says “captivates me with its wide spectrum of feelings and Turkish folk spirit”.
