Guitarist and composer Simon S. Furnes from Alversund, north of Bergen, Norway, has just released his debut album Birds of Passage. In the spring of 2025, he completed his master's degree
in music performance at the University of Agder. After working mainly as a freelance musician, Simon felt a need to express himself through his own compositions.

Simon's debut album represents his search for new approaches to improvisation and composition. This led him to Olivier Messiaen and his seven symmetrical scales, modes of limited transposition.
Despite the fact that these scales generally have great potential for dissonant harmonies, he wanted to explore how they can function in a tonal and organic universe.

Birds of Passage invites the listener on a journey through changing tonal landscapes, where the interaction between tonality and harmonic relationships is explored within dissonant frames. The album was recorded at the renowned Rainbow Studio, and contributing musicians are Hildegunn Øiseth, Mats Eilertsen, Karl Oluf Wennerberg and Simon S. Furnes himself. Simon's compositions have a strong melodic focus which, in combination with exploratory improvisations, creates a balance between familiar and unfamiliar terrain.