Sunleif Rasmussen

Sunleif Rasmussen (born March 19, 1961, in Sandur in the Faroe Islands) is the foremost Faroese composer of classical music.

Rasmussen studied in Norway, then returned to Tórshavn in the Faroes as a music teacher and jazz pianist.

He also became familiar with spectral music, which has its roots at the IRCAM in Paris, and the work of composers such as Tristan Murail.

It radiates a natural artistic integrity, combining tightness and structure with lyric feeling."

He transforms folk music themes using spectral and serial techniques, using intervals in the original melody to generate rhythmic segments and harmonic overtone spectra to determine the melodic and timbral material; the result is an abstraction from Faroese traditional music, even though none of the original melodies can be discerned in the finished composition.