The inventor of ice music, Terje Isungset brings his ice quartet to Leeds.
Terje Isungset is the pioneering artist who invented ice music, transforming frozen water into a medium of musical expression. Since 1999, when he composed music beneath a frozen waterfall in Lillehammer, Norway, Isungset has been exploring the extraordinary sonic potential of ice. Each instrument in the performance is carved and crafted using only natural frozen ice from the lakes in Norway. These remarkable instruments include an ice harp, ice horn, iceophone, and ice bass – each one a unique, ephemeral work of art
The concert is a tribute to nature, drawing inspiration from Isungset’s albums Winter Songs and Beauty of Winter. By using ice as both instrument and inspiration, the performance invites audiences to experience music in its most elemental and transient form. Terje Isungset has been pushing musical boundaries since the late 1980s, experimenting with natural materials like wood, stones, and metal. His discovery of ice’s musical potential came from a moment of pure inspiration: “I took the sound from underneath the waterfall, and then I hit the ice. I thought it was so beautiful. It was like falling in love.”
Since 2006, Isungset has been running the world-renowned Ice Music Festival in Norway, continuing to explore and share this extraordinary musical concept with global audiences.
