Ice Music

Sound and Music is supporting a collaboration between sounduk and Somerset House as they present a series of live performances and installations which aim to entrance, provoke and inspire visitors as part of the Somerset House ice rink season.

The project centres around a series of live performances of Ice Music, created by acclaimed Norwegian composer and percussionist, Terje Isungset, and the London premiere of The Idea of North, an installation evoking the frozen landscape of the far north.

The Idea of North is a collaboration between Terje Isungset and Phil Slocombe of the Leeds based arts organisation Lumen, commissioned by Opera North Projects. Using rare archive film and footage recorded by artist Mariele Neudecker for Opera North’s Winterreise (2003), Lumen’s intricately patterned, often mysterious imagery combines with an intensely physical soundscape created by Terje purely from ice. The Idea of North will be projected inside an ‘urban igloo’, a geodesic dome installed on the River Terrace at various times throughout each day, where visitors will be immersed in the sights and sounds of cracking ice and falling snowflakes as part of this unique winter event.

Terje Isungset will present a series of live performances of Ice Music in the igloo using musical instruments hand made out of pure ice, some from ancient glaciers. Terje Isungset has pioneered the making of ice instruments from solid blocks of pure ice, recording ethereal sounds and serious music under harsh conditions in the mountains of Norway. From these recordings he has developed Ice Music, a live performance using some of the unique ice instruments he has made such as ice horns, an iceophone and ice percussion, together with the sublime Norwegian singer Lena Nymark. Each performance lasts just 30 minutes due to the nature of these highly unusual instruments and takes place inside the intimate space on the River Terrace.

The Idea of North
Somerset House, River Terrace, London WC2R 1LA
Admission free. Opening times daily: Friday 7-Sunday 9 January
10am – 12midday, 1.30pm – 2.30pm, 4pm – 5.30pm

Ice Music
Performances daily: Friday 7-Sunday 9 January
1pm, 3.30pm, 6.30pm
Tickets £7.50 concessions £5
www.somersethouse.org.uk/icemusic

Please wear warm clothes and note that Ice Music performances have limited seating, the rest standing. The venue will be closed to the public an hour prior to each Ice Music performance.

Generously supported by: Arts Council England, Norwegian Arts Council, Sound and Music, Royal Norwegian Embassy, Bergen Commune, Opera North Projects