ICE IS WATER IS ICE IS - for piano, multi-channel sound and interactive video (2019)

I. eleven words II. tippua droppa dreypi III. iceblink

The project stems from the idea concerning changing states of being, in this case of water. The linguistic play of “states” of being also refers to actual changing territories or locations of migration. Since there was a major migration of Icelanders to Winnipeg, Manitoba in 1875, and we met through a connection in Reykjavik, Iceland and the BUNMF is in Brandon, Manitoba, we thought these connections would be serendipitous to explore. The title of the work, is a play on words for ice in Icelandic and Swedish; is=ice in translation. The imagery displays the transformation of water from a liquid to a frozen state as documentary and abstract imagery. These examples are mixed with animated representations of the actual behavior of water molecules in various states of agitation and repose. The second movement uses the amplitude of the live piano to advance the video of a downpour, frame-by-frame, as though the piano is generating the rain.

Created for Megumi Masaki. Premier performance at Brandon University New Music Festival, Manitoba, Canada, March 2019

Presented here is documentation of the recording sessions with full stereo sound master [down-mixed from 5.1 surround sound] and intermixed video from performance projections. Ken Steen - music + sound; Gene Gort - video + interactive design; Megumi Masaki - piano; Koby Nelson - recording engineer; Ken Steen - multi-channel audio mix; Gene Gort - video post-production; Tim Lawless - interactive performance programming