Bára Gísladóttir »Silva«

Presented in collaboration with Deutsche Oper, Icelandic composer Bára Gísladóttir performs her work »Silva«, a downward-growing forest of bass and shadow.

Icelandic composer and double bassist Bára Gísladóttir has built an international reputation for compositions that treat sound as a living organism. Shifting fluidly between orchestral composition and interdisciplinary production, her work draws equally from contemporary classical rigor and the physical thrust of experimental music: heavy metal, noise, drone, techno and electronica are folded into her meticulously-shaped process.

In cooperation with the Deutsche Oper, Gísladóttir will perform a rare presentation of her work Silva. Built entirely from the double bass and its electronically processed extensions, the work imagines a forest rooting itself into darkness rather than reaching for light. Thick, oil-dark drones gather at its core, while higher overtones hover like pale vapor rising from subterranean heat. Each tone originates from the instrument in Gísladóttir's hands, layered and transformed into a dense, breathing mass, slow-burning tectonic movements where darkness is radiant.