When Age Veeroos recently approached me for a CD review, I have to admit it didn't ring any bells. I'd never heard of her before, let alone been familiar with her work. I'd be surprised if you, dear reader, were in a different boat—though exceptions certainly exist. So let me first shed some light on her background.
Age Veeroos, also known as Age Hirv, was born on May 11, 1973 in Võru, Estonia. In 1998, she graduated in German philology from the University of Tartu, with a detour to study literature at the University of Göttingen from 1993-1994. She studied composition from 1996 to 1998 at the Tartu Heino Music School, before earning her master's degree in composition with distinction in 2006 from the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre (EAMT). Shortly after, she joined Wolfgang Rihm, who became her final mentor at the Hochschule für Musik in Karlsruhe. Throughout her studies, she participated in numerous international training programs, including those with Salvatore Sciarrino (Rome, 2004), IRCAM (Paris, 2005), and the Arditti String Quartet (Metz, 2005). She also attended various masterclasses, including those led by Michael Finnissy, Georg Friedrich Haas, Veli-Matti Puumala, and Betsy Jolas.
Though Veeroos's work may be little known—or unknown—in Belgium and the Netherlands (though Slagwerk Den Haag has certainly programmed some of her pieces), her compositions are performed regularly both at home and abroad, in regular concert programs and at music festivals alike, by no less prestigious ensembles than Ensemble Musikfabrik, Sinfonietta Riga, the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, the Arditti String Quartet, the Berlin Philharmonic, and at the Hanover State Opera.
In 2010, Veeroos won the grand prize with a six-member team in the music theater competition organized by Zeitgenössische Oper Berlin for the festival Operare 2010. In 2020, the European Composer and Songwriter Alliance (ECSA) nominated Ma olen suur kuu su silmapiiril ('I am the great moon on your horizon') for the European Orchestra of Contemporary Composers (ECCO) concert. As part of the sixty-minute program, curated through a referendum, her piece was selected for the seventeenth online edition, which was performed in February 2021 by Joey Marijs from Slagwerk Den Haag. In 2023, Veeroos received the Lepo Sumera Composition Prize.The modern and contemporary music specialist label Kairos has recently released a new album featuring seven works by Age Veeroos. The title is2010. In 2020, the European Composer and Songwriter Alliance (ECSA) nominatedMa olen suur kuu su silmapiiril('I am the great moon on your horizon') for the concert as part of the European Orchestra of Contemporary Composers (ECCO). As part of the sixty-minute program, compiled based on a referendum, her piece was selected for the seventeenth online edition, performed in February 2021 by Joey Marijs of Slagwerk Den Haag. In 2023, Veeroos received the Lepo Sumera Composition Prize.
A new album with seven works by Age Veeroos was recently released on Kairos, a record label specializing in modern and contemporary music. The title,Outline of the Night, refers to the piece of the same name for ensemble, which Veeroos completed last year.
Simon Cummings provided excellent commentary. Of course, one might question whether music really needs it, and if so to what extent, but certainly in today's musical landscape even a relatively modest analysis can work wonders. If only to cultivate aural understanding for music that is often not particularly accessible.
Central to Age Veeroos's music: nothing is as it seems. Or perhaps everything is exactly as it seems. This paradoxical character is fueled by its elusiveness, the most characteristic feature of her compositional approach in my view. This in contrast to the 'subjects' she has chosen. There's something mysterious about it: this music with its inescapable sense of the untouchable, which by its very nature defies adequate verbal description. Veeroos excels in the symbiosis of radiant energy and tense, ambiguous rhetoric. Music that integrates microtonality as readily with electronics, wherein unconventional playing techniques are explored and obsessive surrealism embraced as much as the offshoots of Estonian folk music.
Many contemporary composers often deploy new timbral material to create an entirely new listening experience. This stems from the idea that the traditional sound world, from a historical perspective, has become worn out and therefore unusable.
Why should Veeroos be any different? For her, new sounds – as this album also makes abundantly clear – are not an end in themselves. Rather, it is music in which hyperexpression is reflected as her primary spiritually grounded 'visual language.' Not monolithic blocks of sound but ascetic diffusion and (seemingly?) intuitive stillness, welling up from subtly crafted sound sculptures that manifest as freely floating sonic objects.
Contemporary music demands, nay requires, intensely engaged musicians who have completely internalized the most complex pieces. On this album it comes together perfectly: the intense commitment, the technical mastery, and the crystal-clear recordings that offer far more than just the cherry on top. Because it's often overlooked: that from the very foundation, the recording itself is a crucial determining factor in the final result, however excellent the music and musicians may be. It is after all the quality of the recording that unlocks the music and makes the listener a participant in it. On this album it is realized down to the smallest detail.
