麻豆社

Fording frozen streams, skirting lakes and fjords, and crossing a landscape scarred by fires that swept the area during the summer of 2019, Horatio Clare spends a second day trekking Greenland鈥檚 Arctic Circle Trail in this immersive Slow Radio sound walk. Awaiting the arctic sunrise whilst breakfasting, he sets out from his overnight hut and hikes across the frozen bogs of the west coast under a silvery arctic light, accompanied by three runaway huskies.

Silent valleys, mackerel skies, screaming winds, the northern lights and sublime mountain scapes are brought to life by Horatio's commentary and specialist location sounds recordings as they capture the beating of raven鈥檚 wings, the cracking of ice, the sound of seabirds over remote coasts and the lapping of lake water on a Greenlandic beach of gold and white sand.

Focusing on the Greenlandic story up to the recent past and considering the establishment of Inuit and Norse communities across the generations, we hear about the rich culture early 20th century explorers discovered when they arrived at the world鈥檚 largest island. There鈥檚 the juxtaposition of Christian and Shamanic traditions as well as the expression of Inuit identity through music and dance with specially recorded Drum Dance performances.

As well as live performances by Fali Kleist, Nuka Alice Lund and Jose Joelsen, music in the programme includes works by John Luther Adams, Olafur Arnalds, Edmund Finnis and Jean Sibelius. There are also Max Richter鈥檚 arrangements of Vivaldi, music by the group Nordic Affect, and the ice music of Terje Isungset.