Michael Sollis says it is difficult to put seeing the Northern Lights into words. But being a musician, he has other ways to communicate. The artistic director of The Griffyn Ensemble has written a piece, Northern Lights, inspired by the experience, that will have its premiere in Canberra.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
In November 2014, Sollis and astronomer Fred Watson went to the Arctic Circle to see the Northern Lights, or aurora borealis. These bright dancing lights are collisions between electrically charged particles from the sun that enter the earth's atmosphere. The lights are seen above the magnetic poles of the northern and southern hemispheres. They are known as aurora borealis in the north and aurora australis in the south.
The piece also seemed to tie in well with the James Turrell: A Retrospective exhibition at the National Gallery of Australia, so it is being performed at the gallery.
"It seemed perfect synergy - they both deal with light, different senses of light," Sollis says.
Sollis says he worked with Watson a few years ago when the ensemble presented the Australian premiere of Southern Sky by Estonian composer Urmas Sisask in the ruins of Mt Stromlo. He thought it would be a good idea to have a companion piece by an Australian composer about the northern sky.
"Fred and I talked and I decided I would go trekking with him to the Arctic."
They went to Kiruna in Sweden and to Tromso and Alta in Norway where Sollis observed the terrain, sky and light in the Arctic Circle during the northern winter. He was struck by how different it was to here. The sun barely rose above the horizon and there was no daylight, just twilight and then darkness when the sun went down again. The absence of shadows was one of the striking features.
"There's a sense of stillness there," he says. "The green light in the sky is striking ... the colours are so different."
The experience inspired Sollis to create what he calls "my own symphony of the aurora" drawing not only on the experience of the northern lights themselves but on the natural world and mythological and folkloric themes including Snow White, since a lot of stories and imagery came from that part of the world. He says it's a bit like a concept album, trying to capture the essence of a particular place - the ice, the darkness, the light and the feelings the experience of being there evoked in him.
Northern Lights features Fred Watson's voice on tape traversing the sky, as well as stories of poisoned apples and the reborn phoenix, stars blazing, water, underground kingdoms, eternal twilight, and the song of the whale.
Sollis says the piece covers a 24-hour-period - in about one hour - and tells the story of a celestial creature that has been cursed and falls to Earth.
"She goes in search of the sun," he says, seeking the light so she can be reborn, in a sense, and reclaim her place in the sky.
"One of the movements really tries to capture that sense of timelessness in the twilight and that sense that time isn't dictated by the sun any more - it's got its own world."
Northern Lights is on at the National Gallery of Australia, May 30, at 6pm and May 31 at 2pm. Tickets $10-$45. More information and bookings: griffynensemble.com.
