Terje Isungset Ice Quartet at Lighthouse Poole Review
DISCLOSURE – TICKETS TO SEE THE SHOW WERE GIFTED TO THE REVIEWER AND GUEST FOR THE PURPOSES OF WRITING THE REVIEW
Reviewed by Mel S-W
Photo credit Terje Isungset Ice Quartet
Well this was a different night at Lighthouse! The Terje Isungset Ice Quartet are heading on to a few more places after tonight’s performance before heading back to Europe to continue their tour.
Like most of the audience, we dressed for arctic conditions with hats, scarves and the occasional festive jumper. We spoke to one of the amazing volunteers who told us that they would be cooling the ice during the performance so we opted to remain toasty and keep our layers on. After a slightly delayed start – I mean when you’re dealing with arctic ice on a warm stage, you’re pretty much at the mercy of the ice. I suppose behind the curtain, they were just wanting to make sure such fragile and unusual instruments were ready so that they could impress and wow.
When the curtain was raised, we were able to see the instruments in all their frosty glory! They looked so magnificent. The harp and the double base were melted in places so the ice looked slick, with a huge ice trough taking centre stage, looking rugged and so cold that if you’d touch it, your hand would stick to it!
Composer and percussionist, Terje Isungset is one of Europe’s most accomplished and innovative percussionists and a pioneer of ice instruments. He performed the world’s first ice music concert inside a frozen waterfall in Lillehammer, Norway on 11 February 2000. Throughout the show, it really came across how passionate Terje was about his work, nature and the Norwegian Fjords, even inviting the audience to book tickets to their show in Greenland.
Terje, who is famed for his skills in teasing out interesting sounds from natural materials such as stone and wood, decided to utilise the outstanding natural acoustic properties of ice at that concert in Lillehammer and through calculated trial and error, created an incredible, ethereal and beguiling sound from this most delicate and temperamental resource.
The quartet was made up of the following band members and instruments. Terje Isungset took the icy helm on ice drums, ice percussion, ice horns and iceofone. One of the ice horns caused a ripple of amusement across the audience. Afterwards he explained that the noise simulated the sound of Whales in the Fjords and it would have been good for the audience to know this beforehand.
Amalie Holt Kleive provided haunting beautiful vocals, ice percussion and water. All the songs apart from one didn’t have any actual lyrics but Amalie made the music very atmospheric. Julie Rokseth was playing the ice harp, using various everyday objects such as a light bulb, a fan and some string, which added an extra dimension to her fantastic harp playing. Toivo Fjose was in charge of the very impressive ice bass. Together they were able to make some phenomenal noises out of ice.
I thought it was really interesting watching the 5th member of the team, who was having to create an ice chime, iceofone and to tend to some of the smaller pieces of ice. This was certainly something different and it felt like something very special.
So if you’re looking for something a little bit different and are looking for a symphony of shivers or a concerto in Brrrr major, this may just be the one for you. From cold starts to warm applause… definitely a chilling triumph that left the audience thawed and thunderstruck.
I would give this 3.5 out of 5. It would have been good to have a bit of context before some of the songs, a bit of an introduction to the song.
This was a one night only show with tickets starting from £22. Find out what else is coming up at Lighthouse Poole by checking out their website https://www.lighthousepoole.co.uk/whats-on/ or calling the Box Office on 01202 280000
The full address is Lighthouse, Arts and Entertainment, 21 Kingland Road, Poole, Dorset, BH15 1UG
Rating: 3.5/5