Image courtesy of the artists
SPHERE
a shimmering ornament of silt
Ottawa, Ontario
Presented by
National Arts Centre
A sound installation created by Canadian composer rebecca bruton and Icelandic composer Halla Steinunn Stefánsdóttir, two musical creators attuned to one another’s practices in experimental music, sound, and the interconnectedness of art and ecological systems.
Together, they sift through ancient soil, sediment, and fossilization, and consider what the silt carries when it greets us in the present. The sound installation will run the duration of the festival, with musicians interacting live in timed musical activations.The result? A fossiliferous shimmering of sounds, objects, poetic fragments, and music.When to visit:The installation is accessible at all times during NAC opening hours.Musical activation with live performers daily:Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 12:30pm and 6:30pmSunday at 12:30pm
This event is presented as part of the NAC Orchestra’s SPHERE Festival.
Performer, composer, curator Halla Steinunn Stefánsdóttir is one of Iceland’s leading figures within the early and contemporary music scene. She has been the artistic director of Nordic Affect since its inception in 2005. Halla Steinunn’s work has been a tour de force when it comes to work with composers, performers, visual artists, and producers. She is driven by an ecosystemic outlook on creation, set to further explore its world-making possibilities through music‘s many mediated relationships.
Halla Steinunn‘s compositional output has spanned everything from electro-acoustic compositions to sound and media installations. 2018 saw the release of her work He(a)r on Nordic Affect’s album by the same title. The album was featured in various best-of- the-year lists, including The Boston Globe, I Care if You Listen and Second Inversion. Recent works have included Spherical White with Diamond, a site-respondent installation created for Curated Place and NATUR (UK) in collaboration with National Trust Formby (UK) and Fjärilarna steg upp (The butterflies ascended) an installation of 8 mono channels created for The Botanical Garden in Lund (SE). Among upcoming projects, alongside the NAC Orchestra’s commission is the release of the strengur album project on Carrier Records.
