Between 2015-2017, Norwegian composer Jan Martin Smørdal (OM 28) composed 3 works under the name My Favorite Thing, consisting of music for the percussion trio Pinquins (MFT 1), Ensemble neoN (MFT 2), and the Broadcasting Orchestra (MFT 3). Based on interviews with all participating performers, Smørdal has interpreted the performers' formative encounters with music from childhood. The works consist of direct quotations, abstracted reflections and free retellings.

Smørdal has long been concerned with mechanisms behind herd behavior, reflex movements, self-standing patterns, and spontaneous social dynamics. Thoughts about such phenomena, and concretizing and interpreting such phenomena as sound and flow, have been the springboard for much of my work over the past 10 years. On this release you can hear an early example of this, where an individual's short-term memory forms an entire swarm, "Flock of Me" played by Yumi Murakami.

The disc also contains another early work "less-sense." The piece was written for and performed by Silje Aker Johnsen, Kristine Tjøgersen and Ane Marthe Sørlien Holen. Through a text fragment by Augustine, the I-person tries to remove his former self, gradually by unraveling his own note.

Jan Martin Smørdal (b.1978) is a composer and performer. He is also a member and co-founder of Ensemble neoN, an award-winning new music collective that initiates and implements projects internationally. Smørdal is an established composer with works for orchestra and chamber ensembles, in addition to installations, choral works and improvisations in various forms. He is co-recipient of a number of Spellemannprize, and in 2022 received Arne Nordheim's Composer's Prize.

Label: LAWO
Catalog No: LWC1276

Track Listing

1. Smørdal: less-sense (no intro)
   Kristine Tjøgersen, Ane Marthe Sørlien Holen, Jan Martin Smørdal, Silje Aker Johnsen
   
2. Smørdal: My Favorite Thing 1
   Pinquins
   
3. Smørdal: My Favorite Thing 2
   Ensemble neoN
   
4. Smørdal: My Favorite Thing 3 I.
   Norwegian Radio Orchestra
5. Smørdal: My Favorite Thing 3 II. another memory
   Norwegian Radio Orchestra
6. Smørdal: My Favorite Thing 3 III. memory of major – minor, pulses
   Norwegian Radio Orchestra
   
7. Smørdal: My Favorite Thing 3 IV. arpeggios, beats
   Norwegian Radio Orchestra
   
8. Smørdal: My Favorite Thing 3 V. memory of major – minor
   Norwegian Radio Orchestra
9. Smørdal: My Favorite Thing 3 VI.
   Norwegian Radio Orchestra
10. Smørdal: My Favorite Thing 3 VII. ... something about a bird
    Norwegian Radio Orchestra
11. Flock of Me
    Yumi Murakami