Experimental musical composition: A Thousand Lights Away
Merilyn Jaeski’s electronic composition A Thousand Lights Away was inspired by a legend in which creatures living as seals can transform into human beings by peeling off their skins. This enables them to live on dry land for a limited time, but if they lose their sealskins, they are not able to return to the sea. These creatures, often depicted as seal-women, are characterised by a certain mysteriousness and an inner contradiction between their maritime life and their earthly existence.
A Thousand Lights Away tells the story of a seal-woman who faces the chasm between her two worlds and finds her way back to the home of her soul.
The vocal part was created using a language invented by the composer, which she calls “obsidron” and which was inspired by Estonian, English, Gaelic, Swedish, Icelandic, Māori and Hungarian. The vocal part will be performed by the composer herself, who is also the author of the lyrics.
Merilyn Jaeski is a composer whose oeuvre combines compositions for acoustic instruments with electro-acoustic sound landscapes and multi-sensory experiences. Her music has been performed at such festivals as COMMUTE, Musicfest Aberystwyth and Estonian Music Days. Jaeski’s works invite listeners to experience the world in novel ways, arousing their senses and imagination.
This event is a part of the programme of the Kumu Courtyard Festival: Icelandic Currents.
