Askim: Duo for Viola and Double Bass

There is something dark and intensely personal about the sounds of the viola and bass. In their most traditional roles, the two instruments dispense with virtuosic display and have a far more subtle (but no less influential) role in shaping the music they play. Compared with the violin or the cello, their role tends to be less "extroverted", more supportive.However, far from being deferential and lacking personality, both instruments encompass seemingly contradictory qualities and are capable of extremes. They have an enormous range, both in terms of the notes they can play and the colors they can create, but also of the emotions they can express. They possess an innate quality of introspection and fragility, but also of enormous energy and power: power that emanates from both beneath and within.The Duo, then, is an attempt to capture these sometimes opposing qualities of darkness, introspection, fragility and raw power. The outer sections are delicate, crystalline and spacious - they