Marco Fusi - Lei Lang: Six Seasons

The Chukchi Sea, north of Alaska, is one of the most inaccessible places to humans on earth. Six seasons in the Arctic, according to the Inuit, are not demarcated by a fixed calendar, but by what we hear in the changing environment. Hydrophones were placed about 300 meters below the sea surface at a seafloor recording location 160 kilometers north of Point Barrow. They capture the sound of sea ice, marine mammals, and the underwater environment throughout an entire year. Our journey begins on 29 October 2015, just three days after new ice had started to form - the birth of ice.

Oceanographer Joshua Jones and composer Lei Liang started their sonic exploration of the Arctic in 2018. Six Seasons (for any number or improvising musicians) was completed in 2022. Marco Fusi (violin and viola d'amore) joined the collaboration in 2024 to create an ambitious solo version of the work. The three collaborators spoke on zoom on 2 July 2024, to reflect on their work together. The transcription of the conversation was then edited by the co-authors.