Irreversible Loops. Cosmic transmissions from Glaciers

       

       ⎮field recording - glacial encounters, sound performance, poetic videograpgy and scanography º∿ Glacier Triglav º∿ Glacier Skuta


Irreversible Loops explore bodies in relation to extremely distant OtheR - glacial bodies - unknown microbiomes, elemental environments, far beyond our every day. In August 2023, I ascended Glacier Triglav and Glacier Skuta, using microphones to eavesdrop the ancient sonorities of vanishing glaciers. The Triglav Glacier and the Skuta Glacier, Slovenia’s last remnants of glacial bodies, faced accelerated melting in September 2023. By the autumn of the same year, extreme temperature and precipitation fluctuations had almost completely eradicated them. In early August of the same month, the lower lying territories were hit by the most extensive floods in the history of Slovenia.




As I sat with the glaciers on Skuta and Triglav, shivering with cold and expanded consciousness, I listened to the sacred breath of the mountains and the complex language of the ancient waters accumulated in the glacial body. A powerful intuition emerged:  the icy waters high in the mountains are bodies of cosmic transmission. As receivers of cosmic particles, the glaciers transmitted their own mysterious sonority – they felt as cosmic radio. Up there, you feel it deeply through your body, akin to the inspired meteorologists - practitioners of ancient Greek oracle traditions (Ancient Greek: μετεωρολόγοι), who used their resonant bodies and breath to eavesdrop on the earth and cosmos. The transition of ice into liquid water is instantaneous; in that moment, it reveals the ancient and unknown mysteries. When the glaciers disappear, silence remains.


Field recordings from the Glacier Triglav and Glacier Skuta  by Petra Kapš. Performative field recordings from glaciers include sonic studies using vibration, electromagnetic, tectonic, surface, and underwater microphones.
Other sonic sources: voice, MOTH theremin, glacial objects and artifacts.
(Post)glacial textural and structural patterns form the foundation of the acousmatic composition and live act acousmatic concert. In the performance, glacial sonority is expanded into the field of extended radio sonority and recorded electromagnetic emissions from greek island of Samothrace by Nikos Sotirelis.