for ensemble and glacier ecoacoustics
duration = 18'30" or 10'30" (two versions)
instrumentation: flute, clarinet, horn, 2 violins, viola, cello, bass
“Sound Cast of Matanuska Glacier” (2015) is a sound artwork resulting from a decade of listening to and analyzing the Matanuska Glacier in south central Alaska, and engineering a “sound cast” of that glacier. The sound casting technique involves simultaneously recording many channels of audio across and inside the glacier in order to capture a sense of the total sonic signature of it. Air, water and ice microphones are spread across the glacier in a wide spatial array to measure vibrations through the ice and water in addition to the air. Reassembled later in a multichannel speaker array, this technique enables us to hear the glacier in a way that we cannot with our ears alone. The instrumental and electronic music uses a combination of sonification and free composition, putting science and imaginative music into dialog with the glacier as a dynamic musical instrument. The work can be performed as a concert piece with multichannel audio, or exhibited as a multichannel sound installation. As an installation, the musical piece is performed within the installation and then the glacier ecoacoustics remain in the gallery as multichannel sound diffusion.
Sound Cast of Matanuska Glacier (2015)
Performance materials include a PDF score and fixed media electronic track