An ear-splitting new musical event took place in Norway over the weekend.
At the Ice Music Festival, performers played instruments
built exclusively from naturally harvested ice and snow.
Arielle Duhaime-Ross traveled to the freezing town of Geilo without earplugs
to check out some of the world's most sincere musicians.
— Before the Ice Music Festival can come to life,
there's work to do, and lots of it.
The instruments are crafted over hours, and sometimes days,
by sculptors, sound technicians, and musicians.
The event, which was first held in 2006,
is the brainchild of Terje Isungset,
a famous Norwegian jazz percussionist and composer.
The idea came to him in 1989, during a concert in a frozen waterfall.
It was then that he first started hitting ice.
— A variety of factors can influence the sound of each instrument,
from the ice's purity, to the venue's temperature.
That uncertainty, combined with the high likelihood that fingers will freeze,
can be hard for any musician.
Grzech Piotrowski, a saxophone player and composer from Poland,
is one of the musicians who performed at the festival's main showcase.
— The concert is in a few hours. How do you feel?
— A little bit stressed, because we are building this huge saxophone,
and, actually, soundchecks start in one hour.
I never played any notes.
I realized that I can't play more than maybe 20 or 30 minutes.
It's really, absolutely, extremely cold.
So even if I have two gloves, it's too hot, so my soprano sax just melts.
— So you probably won't have time to practice.
— There is no option to practice, because, practicing, I will destroy [my] instrument.
Each hour, because of different temperature, the tones goes up or higher.
— So you have to be able to adapt.
— Yes, we will adapt.
— Adapt, he did—with varying results.
Ice music probably won't be trending on Spotify anytime soon,
but, for the crowd at the festival, it was an otherworldly experience.
— I think I am drawn to like odd festivals,
and, when I heard they've got, like, such a passion for music and unusual music,
that just seemed like the perfect thing to come to.
— Didn't know what to expect.
And, yeah, I thought,
definitely going to come back again.