Nordic Journey, Volume XVIII—Echoes of the Baltic Sea

The culture of the lands surrounding the Baltic Sea is the focus of Nordic Journey Volume XVIII-Echoes of the Baltic Sea. The repertoire which spans three centuries comes from all of the lands whose borders intersect with this body of water:  Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Gotland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Sweden, and Åland, with two bonus tracks from Norway and Switzerland. The collection includes ten commissioned works, and numerous discoveries from previous years. Diversity of expression is the foundation of this volume as the music veers from neoclassicism, folk music, romanticism, minimalism, serial, impressionism, musical theater, and jazz. 

Jim journeyed to Pori, Finland in January 2025 to record this double-disc set, and employed for the second time in the Nordic Journey series, the magnificent Paschen-Kiel organ located within Central Pori Church. He was joined by several talented musicians: Estonians Kaidi Ugandi, violin and Hedi Viisma, kannel, and Finnish violist Riitta-Liisa Ristiluoma. 

For more about the making of Nordic Journey Volume XVIII, watch this video. Nordic Journey, Volume XVIII is available for purchase from Pro Organo. European customers can oder at jpc.de.

Nordic Journey Volume XVII is subtitled North Atlantic Voyage as it examines the organ music from the lands that were a part of the westward Norse movement, beginning in the Viking era. Beginning in Norway, the two discs proceed with repertoire from the Orkney and Shetland islands, the Outer Hebrides, the Faroe Islands, Iceland, Greenland and finally concluding with music in the American jazz idiom arranged by a Norwegian artist. Featuring ten commissioned works, the program highlights new music. 

In August 2024, Jim traveled north of the Arctic Circle to the northern Norwegian city of Bodø where he recorded the majority of this project's program. Using the vast tonal resources of the Eule organ in Bodø Cathedral, this eighteenth volume also includes participation from talented guest artists such as Ragnhild Hemsing on Norway's national instrument, the Hardanger fiddle, Oganes Girunyan on violin and composer Páll Sólstein on French horn. The sessions for "XVII" continued one month later at the iconic Hallgrímskirkja in Reykjavík where Jim recorded three large works from the Icelandic tradition. 

Pro Organo released this collection in the United States on December 1, 2025 and a subsequent physical release occurred later that month in Europe by JPC with a digital release occurring in the first week of January 2025. 

Nordic Journey, Volume XVII is available from Pro Organo. Here's an interesting look at the making of Nordic Journey Volume XVII.

The interaction of Teutonic and Nordic musical styles has always been a source of fascination for Jim and so in May 2024, he traveled to the Pauluskirche in Ulm, Germany to record the double-disc set Nordic Journey Volume XVI-Germanic Connections. This project features organ music from Germany, Norway, Sweden, Latvia, Sweden, Poland, Estonia, Iceland, Finland, and the Czech Republic, all of which have experienced influence from the German Romantic School . This program demonstrates the pervasive influence of the German school in a widely varied way, ranging from the conservative corner of the culture in the manner of Rheinberger to the more progressive and nationalistic school of Wagner, finally culminating in the impressionistic influence of Sigfrid Karg-Elert. 

One commissioned work occupies a central place in Volume XVI, Seven Paintings On German Monuments by contemporary Hamburg-based composer Andres Willscher. This is an opus that takes its point of departure from Karg-Elert's Seven Pastels from the Lake of Constance, and envisions a contemporary interpretation of this impressionistic musical language. 

The Link/Gaida organ which is located in the Pauluskirche is ideally positioned to interpret the varied tonal demands of this repertoire, much of which appears here in a first recording. 

Nordic Journey, Volume XVI is available from Pro Organo.

For the first time, Jim left the Nordic lands to record Volume XV in Ulm, Germany in a single disc program devoted to the music of the Baltic states. The four manual Link/Gaida organ proved to be the perfect vehicle for this multifaceted repertoire and the church's space provided the perfect acoustical ambience. Recording sessions for this project occurred during the first week of September 2023.

Jim contrasted largescale works from the Romantic Era including Alfred Karindi's Orgelsonate Nr. (f-moll) with more contemporary offerings. There are two commissioned pieces on this recording: Lithuanian Folk Suite by Vidas Pinkevicius and Three Pieces for Organ and Estonian Kannel by Malle Maltis. The latter also included the contribution of Estonian kannel expert Hedi Viisma. These three pieces paired the intimate sounds of the poetic kannel with the chamber-like sounds of the organ. 

Baltic Sojourn saw its release in December 2023 in the physical form and entered the digital sphere in the first week of January 2024. Nordic Journey, Volume XV is available from Pro Organo, and you can learn more about this Baltic Sojourn here.

Jim continued his research of Nordic music and culture with a visit to Helsinki, Finland in March 2023, a trip that included several days of recording sessions at Kallio Church. The resulting single-disc Nordic Journey Volume XIV is subtitled The Organs of Kallio Church and employs the two contrasting instruments located in that historic sacred space. 

The first half of Jim's program highlights the choir organ of the church, dating from 1987 and built by the Finnish Kangasala firm. Neo-classic in its tonal orientation, this organ was intended to play the masterworks of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. As such, Jim chose a set of twentieth and twenty-first century compositions that were influenced by the forms and styles of the past. This includes chorale-based works by Fridthjov Anderssen, Fin. Viderø, and Lasse Toft Eriksen. Compositions based upon Nordic folk melodies also appear in this first section with settings by Mats Backman, a composer from Åland, and a lovely interpretation of a Finnish folk theme by Jukka Kankainen, scored for flute and organ. The Helsinki-based musician, Katja Ceder, expertly provided the flute part. The set concludes with an extended suite by the twentieth-century German composer Hans Friedrich Micheelsen, Das Holsteinische Orgelbüchlein. This engaging collection of seven movements develops thematic ideas from the composer's native Holstein, one of the most northerly provinces of Germany, and for many centuries was a part of Denmark. 

The second half of Nordic Journey Volume XIV employs the considerable aural resources of the church's organ located in the rear gallery. Installed in 1995 by the Åkerman & Lund firm, this instrument takes it inspiration from the late nineteenth-century French builder Aristide Cavaillé-Coll. This organ, therefore, is dramatically symphonic in nature and was intended to authentically interpret the musical expressions of the romantic French school. Given the scope of this organ, Jim concludes this recording with Nordic compositions that exemplify this milieu, a set that includes a unique work for Kantele, Finland's native folk instrument, and organ by Toivo Elovaara. For this composition, Jim was joined by Hedi Viisma, an Estonian exponent of the Kantele. This final grouping also includes two works from the pen of Norwegian composer Kjell Mørk Karlsen, including his Toccata over Te Deum, and a newly commissioned work, A Finnish Pastorale. Karlsen bases the latter on a Christmas Carol written by Finland's national composer, Jean Sibelius. The recording concludes with a final commissioned piece by contemporary Finnish composer Olli Saari. Entitled Dance Dyptych, this virtuosic two-movement essay is a remarkable tour de force, and Jim premiered the piece during this visit as a part of the Helsinki Organ Festival. The point of departure for this music is an aural interpretation of the dance form, with the first section being comprised of scintillating, impressionistic roulades and the second movement featuring a perpetually moving, blazing toccata that brings the opus and the recording to an emphatic denouement. 

Nordic Journey, Volume XIV is available from Pro Organo. See the production of this recording here.

During the many months of the COVID-19 lockdown, Jim used the enforced solitude to assemble the most ambitious volume of his Nordic Journey series, Nordic Journey XI/Nordic Anthology. This triple-disc collection of twentieth-century and contemporary repertoire from Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Finland clocks in at over 234 minutes, including 13 commissioned works and numerous compositions from previous eras that appear here in premiere recordings. Nordic Journey Volume XI/Nordic Anthology, as with its 10 preceding volumes, is available on the American Pro Organo  (#7297) label and will be further distributed by Naxos, appearing on the usual digital platforms. 

Recorded in November 2021, Nordic Anthology highlights the dynamic 2007 Paschen Kiel organ located at Central Pori Church, Pori, Finland. Conceived in the tonal tradition of the French Symphonic School, this unique example of the organ builder's art performs Gallic-influenced repertoire with absolute authenticity, but as Nordic Journey Volume XI demonstrates, also presents contrasting repertoire with similar success.   

Nordic Journey Volume XI presents three differing aspects of the Nordic school with each disc, the first devoted to little-known examples of Nordic Romanticism, the second being comprised of Contemporary works, while the third demonstrates French influence in Nordic repertoire.  Jim was joined by Helsinki-based oboist Seidi Palonen for a composition by Norwegian composer Kjell Mørk Karlsen, and the collection is notable for the inclusion of four creations from the pen of Swedish composer Fredrik Sixten. Jim collaborated with the Finnish publisher Johann Tilli of Edition Tilli in the preparation of several unique scores, and, in addition, commissioned New York City composer/organist Walter Hilse to complete an unfinished early twentieth-century work, Preludi ja Fuga, g-moll by John Granlund (1888-1962) in the style of that Finnish composer.   

Nordic Journey, Volume XI is available from Pro Organo. Learn more about Nordic Journey, Voume XI here.