Track taken from Kate Carr’s upcoming album ‘Songs From A Cold Place’…
Based on field recordings taken during an artist residency in northern Iceland in April of this year, Songs from a cold place offers a snapshot of early spring from a unique vantage point.
In Iceland spring is when migratory geese arrive to feed on their journey even further north. It is when the ice starts to melt, only to be refrozen under new blankets of snow. The low slung shrubs bud, and the small birds can be heard chirruping during breaks in the wind. Spring begins unevenly, a warm day followed by a week long blizzard. A melt followed by metres of snow, and avalanches.
Songs from a cold place features recordings taken from the bird cliffs of Grimsey Island which straddles the arctic circle, the desolate rocky moors of the Skagi peninsula, the frozen inlets of Skagafjorður and the tiny fishing town of Olafsfjorour.
Background: Instrumentally it features: harp, a traditional Icelandic instrument called a langspil, a glockenspiel and guitar in addition to the field recordings.