The Orchestra Made of Ice

Photo:
Ice Orchestra

Now we know why all our glaciers are disappearing, no, it’s not due to global warming after all, it’s because a Norwegian percussionist needs the ice for his instruments. Sounds bizarre? Well, that’s probably because it is.

Musician Terje Isungset has been carving his chilly instruments from ice for the past 20 years. Many moons ago, the budding percussionist, not content with experimenting on stone and glass, decided to use what was available around him, and being Norwegian that happened to be ice. But not just any old ice, Insungset chips away at a 2,500-year-old glacier:

The premise for the drastic change in instrument came after being disillusioned with life as a drummer.

"I had this feeling I wasn't giving music something that wasn't already there," he says. "I started to search, working hard at the idea of balance with the body – making the instrument and myself a unit. Trying, for instance, to hit the drum with my hands, without hurting myself. I abandoned all musical rules. Just pure expression: trying to lose the ego and the thoughts."

To do this, Isungset decided the only way he could escape normal music traditions was to change the instruments, as well as the way he approached the music. Now, Isungest’s musical talents are in high demand. He has recorded five ‘ice’ albums and often plays to international audiences.

Photo:
Icicle Bells

His latest show, Cinderella is currently showing at Lyric Hammersmith in London. For this he created an ice trumpet, which he plays along with a glass drum kit, bicycle wheel and his faithful mouth organ made of metal from a WWII German bomber.

Cinderella is playing until January 3, 2009.

Source 1, 2

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