In spite of the fact that the title: El mar del tiempo perdido (The Sea of time lost) came at a relatively late time in the process of composition, its closeness in mood to Gabriel García Marquez’ short story from 1961 is rather obvious. Perhaps a small excerpt may increase the appetite for both the short story and the music:
Towards the end of February, the Sea would normally be stirred up, it would carry thick fluent garbage towards the city, and a few weeks later, everything would normally be dominated by its unbearable smell. After that, the world would not be worth while living in, at least not until December, and nobody would keep awake after 8 o’clock at night. But the year when Mr. Herbert arrived, the Sea did not change, not even in February. On the contrary, it would be still more flat and translucent, and in the first nights of March it would send out a smell of roses …
They went out into the sea. At first, they swam straight out, then downwards, very far downwards, until the light of the sun would be extinguished, and then the light of the Sea, and things would only be visible due to their own light. They swam past a sunken city with men and women …
Further down into the waters of the recently died persons, Mr. Herbert stopped. Tobias caught up with him in the very moment when a very young woman fled past them. She was lying on one side with wide-open eyes, and was followed by a stream of flowers. Mr. Herbert put his index finger to his mouth and stayed like that, until the last roses had fled past them.
The work was written for Jane Odriozola, and recorded by both Jane Odriozola and Troels Svane.
… en bevæget og selvlysende oplevelse, uden fagter og overlæsset pynt formidlede komponisten overstrømmende og tilstedeværende musik.
(Bergens Tidende)