#4640, Arctic Music
Hear Arctic-themed works by Brooklyn-based musician Claire Dickson, pianist/composer Ryuichi Sakamoto, Inuk singer/composer Tanya Tagaq, Alaskan-born composer Matthew Burtner, and music by John Luther Adams, who lived and worked in Alaska for decades.
From her time sailing on a tall ship in the Arctic Circle, listen to music for voice and keyboard(s) by composer and vocalist Claire Dickson, inspired by the sounds of waves on rocks near where the ship had dropped anchor. Also, hear music by Alaskan-born composer, sound artist, and eco-acoustician, Matthew Burtner, which was first presented as an installation in the Anchorage Museum of Art emanating from inside an 800lb block of glacier ice. Hear “threnody” from his work, Sikuigvik, an Inupiaq word meaning “the time of ice melting”, which commemorates the unprecedented and brutal loss of ice since the late 1990’s.
Listen to work by Japanese-born pianist, producer, film score composer, and electronic music pioneer Ryuichi Sakamoto, recorded in part on a climate change fact-finding expedition to Greenland’s ice fields. There’s also music from Canadian Inuk musician Tanya Tagaq, with a piece rooted in Inuit "throat-singing" – a game of singing into one another's mouths, using the other's throat as a resonating chamber. Plus, hear an expansive work by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer John Luther Adams, who for many years lived and worked in Alaska. It’s his “In a Treeless Place, Only Snow,” as played by ACME (The American Contemporary Music Ensemble.) – Caryn Havlik
Program #4640, Arctic Music (First aired 7/11/22)
ARTIST: EcoSono Ensemble
WORK: Matthew Burtner: Threnody (Sikuigvik) [1:00]
RECORDING: Matthew Burtner: Glacier Music — Ecoacoustics of Glaciers
SOURCE: Parma Records
INFO: ravellorecords.com
ARTIST: Claire Dickson, with Grey Mcmurray, guitar
WORK: Arctic [3:53]
RECORDING: Starland
SOURCE: Claire Dickson
INFO: clairedickson.bandcamp.com
ARTIST: Claire Dickson, with Grey Mcmurray, guitar
WORK: Sea Change [4:03]
RECORDING: Starland
SOURCE: Claire Dickson
INFO: clairedickson.bandcamp.com
ARTIST: Tanya Tagaq, with Chris Derksen, cellos
WORK: Force [3:22]
RECORDING: Auk/Blood
SOURCE: Ipecac Recordings
INFO: tanyatagaq.bandcamp.com/album/auk-blood
ARTIST: EcoSono Ensemble
WORK: Matthew Burtner: Threnody (Sikuigvik) [5:31]
RECORDING: Matthew Burtner: Glacier Music — Ecoacoustics of Glaciers
SOURCE: Parma Records
INFO: ravellorecords.com
ARTIST: Ryuichi Sakamoto
WORK: Glacier [9:44]
RECORDING: Out of Noise
SOURCE: KAB America
INFO: https://kabamerica.lnk.to/SKMT
ARTIST: Ryuichi Sakamoto
WORK: Ice [3:35]
RECORDING: Out of Noise
SOURCE: KAB America
INFO: https://kabamerica.lnk.to/SKMT
ARTIST: Tanya Tagaq
WORK: Snowblind [3:47]
RECORDING: Toothsayer
SOURCE: Six Shooter Records
INFO: tanyatagaq.bandcamp.com/album/toothsayer-2
ARTIST: ACME
WORK: John Luther Adams: In a Treeless Place, Only Snow [11:00]
RECORDING: Thrive on Routine
SOURCE: Sono Lumius DSL-92211
INFO: https://www.sonoluminus.com
