Ylva Skog Terra Firma dB Productions Sweden AB, DBPCD 126 A confident original, and too accessible, composer, Ylva Skog (b. 1963) is unconcerned with fashion in contemporary music, very much her own woman. A refreshing, eclectic selection in a wide variety of idioms and instrumentations - from marimba/vibraphone to full orchestra. The words of the Baudelaire songs (given in Swedish & French) are not quite easy; an English translation on a website would help? She is active as secretary for Sweden's electro-acoustic Institute and is on several Boards etc; pity she wasn't able to influence the messy presentation, with Marten Falk's essay which jumps around and doesn't have the track titles highlighted in BOLD, which is so easy, but often not thought of? The disc deserves success but is unlikely to achieve good sales in UK? Peter Grahame Woolf |