Night Sun II

SHADES OF BÖCKLIN--

--as in the painting 'The Isle of the Dead' below (one of several versions).  Or perhaps Grieg -- this bleak photo could almost be an album cover for the Peer Gynt Suite (it just seems to shout 'Scandinavia!' to me -- not the healthy, happy modern welfare states of efficient design, bland cuisine and no sexual hangups, but the old mythic Scandinavia of grim, dour peasantry, frost giants and pagan mysteries).  I think it would make a nice visual counterpart for 'Death of Åse' -- whenever I hear it I think of a still, snowy landscape that starts off pitch dark, gradually brightening through the first half of the music as the pitch rises, until it climaxes at full, white brilliance, then gradually returns to blackness as the music descends back to the base note.  In any case, this photo seems very Symbolist-like.

EDIT #1:  For the original 'Night Sun', click here.

EDIT #2:  I am not posting a link to a recording of 'Death of Åse' here.  I realize it's common practice for bloggers to post links to music files, but I am trying to minimize the amount of material here that is dependent on other people's uploads on other sites -- such links could go dead at some future date, and I do not want to carry dead links.  Readers who already know the music don't need to be directed to a recording, and those who are curious, can easily find it on YouTube.

 'THE ISLE OF THE DEAD' by ARNOLD BÖCKLIN