From John Luther Adams’ Pulitzer Prize-winning masterpiece, “Become Ocean” to music for the duo Transient Canvas about a volcanic eruption in Indonesia, and music inspired by a Norwegian chemist, hear music inspired by climate change for this New Sounds.
Listen to new work by Minnesota-born composer, pianist, and educator Kirsten Volness for the bass clarinet and marimba duo, Transient Canvas, who are Amy Advocat and Matt Sharrock, respectively. The work by Volness is called “Year of No Summer” and was inspired by the impact of a volcanic explosion in Indonesia (Mount Tambora in the year 1815), whose effects were a three-year climate crisis felt worldwide, with floods, frost, and drought that wiped out harvests leading to much unrest and suffering.
Listen to music from The Sound of Science, a project of the Austin, TX-based composers’ lab, Golden Hornet. Cellist Jeffrey Zeigler performs a work by Norwegian composer Maja S.K. Ratkje, inspired by Ratkje’s mother, who is a chemist working in part with energy-saving electrochemical fuel cells that would reduce the impact of human activity on the climate. Then, there's music from pianist, composer, and producer Kelly Moran and her new record, Ultraviolet. The work is titled "Water Music" and is a result of a quest to feel a connection to nature. (Apologies for condensing what sounds like a really revelatory experience to one sentence. But this Pitchfork interview goes into more depth with Kelly Moran.)
Hear a work by Ryuichi Sakamoto recorded in part on a climate change fact-finding expedition to Greenland, along with work by Robert Fripp, also inspired by climatology. Listen also to the first wave of the Pulitzer Prize-winning work, “Become Ocean” by John Luther Adams, a longtime Alaska resident who saw firsthand the early warning signs of climate change. Plus, music from NYC-based composer Mike Sayre, an elegy for the windswept ice shelves of Antarctica. - Caryn Havlik
#4171: Music About Climate Change (First aired 11/07/2018)
ARTIST: Transient Canvas
WORK: Kirsten Volness: Year Without a Summer [9:49]
RECORDING: Wired
SOURCE: New Focus Recordings fcr218
INFO: newfocusrecordings.bandcamp.com
ARTIST: Robert Fripp
WORK: Water Music I [1:26]
RECORDING: Exposure (First Edition)
SOURCE: EG Records - #EGCD-41
INFO: Available for purchase at Amazon.com
ARTIST: Kelly Moran
WORK: Water Music [6:30]
RECORDING: Ultraviolet
SOURCE: WARPCD/LP 297
INFO: https://kellymoran.lnk.to/UltravioletWe
ARTIST: Golden Hornet featuring Jeffrey Zeigler
WORK: Maja S.K. Ratkje: A Highway in State Space [8:49]
RECORDING: The Sound of Science
SOURCE: National Sawdust
INFO: nationalsawdust.bandcamp.com
ARTIST: Ryuichi Sakamoto
WORK: Glacier [9:44]
RECORDING: Out of Noise
SOURCE: Decca B0014662-72
INFO: sitesakamoto.com
ARTIST: Seattle Symphony Orchestra | Ludovic Morlot
WORK: John Luther Adams: Become Ocean, First Wave [8:09]
RECORDING: John Luther Adams: Become Ocean
SOURCE: Cantaloupe Music CA21101
INFO: cantaloupemusic.com
ARTIST: Mike Sayre
WORK: Elegy, excerpt [3:59]
RECORDING: Music for Icebergs
SOURCE: Teknofonic Recordings
INFO: mike-sayre.com