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| Terje Isungset by John Whiting |
Norwegian musician Terje Isungset and singer Mari Kvien
Brunvoll may never play a music festival in Havana or Trinidad, but Minnesota
was a good place for them to come; it’s winter here, and Bill Covitz, the ice engineer
who carves and crafts Isungset’s instruments (a new set before each concert), was able to
find the ice he needed in one of our local lakes. Lake ice sounds better than
machine ice, and some lake ice sounds better than other lake ice. “There is
only some lakes that have sound,” Isungset told NPR earlier this week, “and
even if you find the lake there might be just a few pieces that will have a
good sound.” All of the instruments are temporary. They melt, crack, and change shape during
the performance. Pieces break off and fall to the ground. Even when played
outdoors in the cold, the ice horns are changed by the warmth of Isungset’s
breath. Trained as a jazz musician, Isungset can improvise, which is probably
Thing One when ice is your medium.
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| Mari Kvien Brunvoll by John Whiting |
The horns are especially haunting. Isungset played three at the Cedar:
large and slightly curved, smaller and more tightly curved, and straight, with
a wide flared bell at the end. They sounded like alpenhorns, like whales
singing, like ships at sea, like the wind. The “iceophone” (ice xylophone)
sounded like a kalimba/mbira (African thumb piano) on steroids. The ice chimes
clinked and clanked. The small drum made a small, hollow sound, and the large one on the
floor made a big sound, like a bass drum in a drum kit, like a giant’s
heartbeat. Sometimes a struck piece of ice rang with a crystalline hum
that hung in the air and slowly faded. Isungset is especially fond of ice that
has this kind of voice, like a living thing. He also crunched ice underfoot and
scraped it, rhythmically and repetitively.
Isungset and Brunvoll performed for more than an hour, maybe
longer, until they had to quit. The large blocks were dripping onto the stage
and the horns had become unplayable. Afterward, Isungset handed instruments and bits of
instruments to audience members. “Thanks to nature for giving
us these instruments,” he said earlier. And, “It’s quite amazing that water
could sound like this. You can drink this instrument.” Music sends its own
powerful messages, but Isungset’s music goes deeper, telling us how precious water is, how useful and essential, how long it has been on our planet. Coincidentally (or not), the Minneapolis StarTribune published an article that day on how Minnesota is draining its water supplies.
Isungset has been making his Ice Music for 13 years, but this is
the first time he has brought it to the US. He played two sold-out concerts at
the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC on Friday, Feb. 23, then came here. Those appear
to be his only US dates. Thanks to the Cedar for giving us the chance to hear
this unique and remarkable artist.
Related:
• “Turning a Glacier Into a Tuba: Ice Music from Norway” (audio; heard on All Things Considered)
• “Iceconcert live on TV – 2012. Terje Isungset & Mari Kvien Brunvoll” (video; similar to what we saw at the Cedar)
• “‘Ice Music,’ made from frozen instruments” (video from the Minneapolis StarTribune)
• "From an ice block, musician carves his marimba" (article with video from the St. Paul Pioneer Press)
• "From an ice block, musician carves his marimba" (article with video from the St. Paul Pioneer Press)
• “For Norway’s Terje Isungset, music is carved from ice” (photos from Minnesota Public Radio of the instruments being made for the Cedar concert)
• "Watching Terje Isungset examine ice is mystifying. Like a Nordic Stradivarius, he lifts individual pieces to his ear, taps them lightly, and listens for something none of the rest of us can hear." (an essay by Cedar intern Zach McCormick, with a video by Michael Rossetto)
All photos by John Whiting.
