The Art
The site is the dramatic Svínafellsjökull glacier, situated in the stunningly beautiful Vatnajökull National Park. The overall programme is being designed in close collaboration with the local authorities and representatives from the National Park to ensure that the environment and the local community are fully respected. Glaciers are very accessible in Iceland making it possible to accommodate the technical requirements of international media and receive a guests of all categories.
The Site
THE TEAM BEHIND THE LIGHTSHOW
Jack Hattingh is the director for the lightshow and lighting designer. His numerous awards include a national Emmy for "The Night the Rains Came," and a gold medal at the Film & TV Festival of New York. He directed the Farm Aid concert two years in a row, and has directed and produced television concerts for many international stars, including The Rolling Stones, Sting and Bon Jovi. (www.jackhattingh.com)
Bergljót Arnalds is the lightshow concept artist and creator. She has been awarded the pioneer award AUÐAR-verðlaunin, among others, for her innovation and creation (www.bergljotarnalds.com). Bergljót has been a TV representative and producer for many original and innovative projects, such as designing the first computer game in Iceland and launching the Love Festival, which has run for several years.
Production company Sagafilm is in charge of the overall production and the television recording.
MUSIC
The music will reflect the uniqueness of glaciers by integrating the beautiful, haunting and capturing soundscape of they offer. Like the colours on a painter’s brush, the composer will be using the sounds of nature to depict and make the world of glaciers more accessible to us all.
Sounds created as the glaciers move, crack, melt and grow have been recorded straight from nature, sometimes under very harsh conditions. The composer will be using these sounds as a foundation for the music creation in a number of ways:
- The world of glaciers — their remoteness, coldness, simplicity, power and beauty — will inspire the composition and arrangement for the musical piece.
- Glacier sounds will be embedded into the music. To create the unique atmosphere governed by the world of ice, the music will use actual sounds and melodies created by glacier calving, ice crystals falling down glacier slopes and trickling drops in ice caves.
Click here to enjoy the unique soundscape created by glaciers:
The music in our trailer is composed by our music director Bergljót Arnalds and incorporates some glacier sounds. (www.bergljotarnalds.com)
THE MUSIC TEAM
Bergljót Arnalds the Vox Naturae music director and composer has been developing the idea of capturing nature’s sounds and integrating them into music since 2003. In 2008, Bergljót co-founded Vox Naturae as a platform to let nature speak through music and arts. With the support of Icelandic Mountain Guides, she has frequently journeyed to glaciers to collect natural sounds. Working with some of Iceland’s most prominent sound engineers and musicians, Bergljót has created a growing library of sounds from glaciers.
Vox Naturae’s other music team members are:
Baldur J. Baldursson, sound engineer
Þórir Baldursson, arrangements
Bjarki arrangements, studio recordings
Matthías A. Stefánsson, programmer
Ólafur Arnalds, percussion
Sigtryggur Baldursson, percussion
Denise Pucelli, piano
Roland Hartwell, violin
THE LIGHTSHOW
The lightshow launching the celebration of glaciers at Svínafellsjökull glacier will be a world first and epic in scale. Never before has an artistic spectacle of lights and music been designed using a glacier as centrepiece.
Lights will be projected directly onto the glacier and put into icy cracks to enhance the unique world of ice governed by white, black and various shades of blue. Using high-tech 3D mapping, ice walls will move and natural phenomena like glacier surges and glacier retreat can be recreated. The approach of synchronizing the lights to original music based on natural sounds is unique.
This one-hour light show will tell the story of glaciers, celebrate their magnitude and show how they move, crack and break like living creatures. It will put a spotlight on the significance of glaciers to humanity and their importance in communicating an emotionally captivating message of the dramatic changes taking place now in the earth’s system.