This 65-minute opus, born from the collaboration between the Icelandic composer Bára Gísladóttir and the British Riot Ensemble, expands upon the themes explored in her previous acclaimed work, Animals of your pasture, shortlisted for the RPS award in 2021.
Gísladóttir’s new piece delves into abstract realms, offering a dual perspective. On one hand, it transports listeners to different levels of reality – almost as if the listener was travelling by an elevator to new dimensions. On the other hand, it intricately weaves together these contrasting spaces, exploring how they reflect and refract upon each other. Gísladóttir’s composition invites audiences to contemplate the interplay between these states, where the moon’s glow may be mirrored from a tranquil pond to a watchful eye, blurring the lines between observer and observed, and inviting a journey through an ever-reflective cosmos.
In this work and as part of her practice generally, Bára Gísladóttir explores and questions stereotypical notions with regard to gender by incorporating genres associated with ‘male’ culture such as drone and metal – this work in particular makes use of industrial noise with the inclusion of a section for angle-grinder. Furthermore, the work is a reflection and meditation on different worlds, abstractly referencing differences across cultures across generations both real and imagined.
The moon is an eye is a pond and so on and so forth is also presented within Sounds Now by Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival
Check out other Sounds Now productions at SPOR 2024: Kaj Duncan David, Our Voices and A Song of Woes, We Offer Steeps
Photo: Gabrielle Motola