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MUSIC
Terje Isungset and Norwegian singer Maria Skranes Photo by Emile Holba
The ice man cometh
With instruments carved from solid blocks of ice, musician and inventor Terje Isungset is coming to St George’s Bristol this month to mark 20 years of ice music. His international project is bringing together artists with a long tradition of living in arctic conditions. Words by Jeremy Blackmore.
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s a percussionist Terje Isungset has always looked for new sounds, but when he stepped inside a frozen waterfall and used the ice to make music, he fell in love. Harnessing the unique properties of the Arctic landscape in his native Norway, Terje began a 20-year exploration of making beautiful, ethereal sounds from the precious ice. On 18 November, Terje is preparing to bring his unique form of music to an audience at St George's Bristol, featuring not only his ice instruments, but also musicians and vocalists from across the Arctic Circle. The origins of Terje’s ice music date back to 1999 when he was commissioned by the Lillehammer Winter Festival to perform a concert in a frozen waterfall. Already renowned for his innovative approach to percussion in jazz and traditional Scandinavian music, he decided to make use of the natural elements. “I took the sound from underneath the waterfall, and then I hit the ice,” he explains with a smile. “I thought it was so beautiful. It was like falling in love.” The experience opened up a whole new range of sonic possibilities for Terje, something that greatly excited him. “I've always been searching for sounds. As a percussionist you can, in fact, define your own instrument. If you play a trombone, you play a trombone, that's it. You play drums, it can be this [he picks up a mug and taps a gentle rhythm] it can be glass, it can be metal, it can be whatever, so I was 22 THE BRISTOL MAGAZINE
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NOVEMBER 2021
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NO¯ 204
very eager to hear the sound of ice and if it could possibly open up something new because it had never been tried before.” Indeed, while others have since followed Terje’s lead and experimented with frozen material, back in 1999 there was no one to ask for advice. He felt like an explorer. “There was no recording to check, there was nothing on the internet, no books, nothing. I started really from zero and I was very excited to discover the sounds.” Nature is extremely important to Terje. Having lived among snow and ice all his life, he has witnessed first-hand the damaging affects of global warming. In 2019, he worked with Greenpeace to highlight the urgent need to protect Arctic oceans. With three other musicians, he staged the world’s most northerly concert titled Ocean Memories. The performance was recorded in -10 degrees Celsius under the midnight sun of Spitsbergen. In the closing moments of a three-minute video uploaded to YouTube, Terje plays a lament on an ice horn as sobering words appear on screen. “This year, the Arctic is suffering record breaking ice loss”, it reads. “I think [the climate crisis] has to do with the lack of respect for nature,” Terje says. “Nature is really unique – it’s our best friend – without nature, no human beings. And if you have a good friend, you have to treat them nice and gently and with respect. It’s very simple.” The audience at St George’s Bristol will see instruments carved
