Dear Listener,It is with great pleasure that we present this CD with music which originates froma very special project. We believe an awareness of the background will add to theexperience and appreciation of this album. Here follows an introduction to the projectand its music.What happens if you combine science and art music into aproject where music meets science in the field of wind power?To answer that question a project laboratory was started at the Kalv Festivalin 2005. An experimental team of seven was formed, consisting of composerDavid Swärd, the Axelsson & Nilsson Duo, civil engineers Bengt Göranssonand Finn Nyhammer, researcher Sten Frandsen and mathematicianOlof Fahlander. The next twelve months were filled with meetings anddiscussions. The aim was to create a mutual exchange of knowledge betweencomposer, musicians, engineers, researcher and mathematicians. Thescientific research would contribute expertise and data to the composerand musicians while researchers and engineers would gain insight intocontemporary art music to pass on in their turn.Portraying rhythmic flow by studying nature’s fluctuations in theatmosphere became a gateway to the four pieces in the “Breath of Life” suite.The idea of presenting the movement of the wind as a musical parameterwas born prior to the project. Initiating the trombone solo Windstep, DavidSwärd came into contact with Bengt Göransson, who was working on windpower. He conveyed data from wind power projections to Swärd who set towork analyzing how a transfer to musical parameters would be possible.In the “Breath of Life” project, the process of transferring wind data wasfurther developed and refined.Onshore, the solo composition for percussion, uses both windspeed and wind direction scales. Swärd places two imaginary hikers in theNorwegian mountains, in an area at the time intended for wind power.The hikers walk the same path - shaped as the mathematical number ofeight - but in opposite directions. The idea is to create a specific sensationof the wind conditions for each of the hikers on their journey across theNorwegian alps. Aided by data from four weather stations it was possibleto calculate wind direction and wind speed for both hikers at the exacttime and the exact location. The varieties of possible wind directions,represented by a scale between 0º and 360º, governed the selection ofpercussion instruments, divided into three categories: metal, wood and skin.Wind speeds between 0 and 15 m/s were transferred into different speeds inmusical movement.In Turbulence I for trombone and vibraphone, Swärd obtains hisinformation from “Onshore” where the hikers in the Norwegian mountainsare represented by the two different instruments. Turbulence in the shape ofcircular movement is added for both instruments and creates, at intervals,a sense of repetition. Turbulence II, for trombone and percussion has itsmaterial from “Windstep”, remade into a dreamlike world of sounds ina tempo close to static.David Swärd and Axelsson & Nilsson Duo