Once we sang of Ice and Fire

The concert grows out of Glacier Lamentation – the sound of climate change, an artistic research project at the Norwegian Academy of Music in which Snekkestad, Lauvdal and Qvenild explore how sound can open new ways of sensing and experiencing climate change.

Drawing on recordings from Arctic landscapes, glaciers, meltwater and underwater environments, together with improvisation, electronics and extended instrumental techniques, the trio develops a music that does not simply describe nature from the outside, but attempts to think and act musically with it.

A practice in which music, composed and developed collectively, is understood as weather: shifting temperature, pressure, friction, density, dissolution and presence; moving between fragile textures, raw energy, melting forms, sonic memory and live processing, with acoustic and electronic materials continually disturbing and transforming one another.

Her work explores the climate crisis alongside questions of memory, identity, and connection in a rapidly changing world.

Set in a landscape shaped by environmental destruction, the novel follows fifteen-year-old Era, who lives on the edge of a forest threatened by fire and documents the disappearance of bird species. As ecosystems collapse, her observations become an attempt to preserve what is vanishing. In contrast, her classmate Maja responds with acts of destruction, highlighting different ways of coping with a world in crisis. Through their relationship, Sironic reflects on how climate change reshapes everyday life, emotions, and future imaginaries.

Fiona Sironic will read from her novel and join a Q&A with the audience. In English.

This Climate Talk brings together artists from music, film and literature whose work will be shown at Deichman throughout the day, alongside climate researcher Michael Schulz.

The conversation asks whether art and culture can help stop climate change, or at least limit it, and whether words, images and music can make us more aware of the responsibility we share. The panel is moderated by the media scholar, podcaster and author Kai Schwind. In English.

Climate Talks is a dialogue series organized by the German Embassy in Oslo. On this platform, we discuss current climate and energy policy issues with representatives from civil society, politics and business, and here, art. The Climate Talk ‘Artistic Reactions to Climate Extremes’ is a collaboration between Ultima, the German Embassy in Oslo and the Goethe-Institut Norway.