Arctic Circle musicians chill audience with enchanting music played on ice-crafted instruments
Have you heard of Tim Linhart before? He’s originally from New Mexico but currently lives in Luleå, Sweden. In a town that’s just south of the arctic circle, Linhart found happiness and a lifelong romance with winter. Tim is a sculptor and makes instruments of ice.
Join us in a visit to the ice concert hall, and prepare to discover the most incredible sounds that the ice can make. Enjoy!
Tim’s idea to make ice instruments, so-called icestruments, occurred while hanging out with a friend who built guitars
In 1998, while traveling around Europe, Tim stopped by in Sweden, to visit an old friend who happened to be a musician. That was an amazing opportunity to see how guitars are made, and that’s when a random thought came along.
Linhart’s first instrument was similar to the double bass. He used the bass strings of a piano and attached them to an ice shape he had just created. The sound that came out thrilled Linhart so much that he decided to quit everything and dedicate his time to making instruments out of ice.
Tim never looked back. Over the course of almost four decades, the innovative sculptor has developed an ice violin, viola, cello, bass, guitar, banjo, mandolin, drums, xylophone, rolandophone, flutes, and a pipe organ.
The pioneer of Ice Music points out that the ice is much easier to work with. While wood can only be carved, you can experiment with ice by adding more water to it, and then freezing it
Looks like the possibilities are endless. Going back to Tim’s life story, after starting the business of ice instruments, Linhart performed in one of the “Ice Hotels” in Luleå, Sweden. That’s where he met his wife Brigitta and decided to stay in Luleå.
Things were progressing perfectly. Linhart had found great success and the love of his life. Now, he only needed a place to perform his Ice music – ideally somewhere cold enough so his icestruments wouldn’t melt.
Linhart constructed his first concert hall in the form of an igloo in 2004
The place seats 170 people and is kept at 23 degrees Fahrenheit (-5⁰ Celsius), but it has a chimney at the center, which allows body heat to be released from it.
Linhart didn’t stop there. He designed and constructed eight more ice concert halls. Tim continues to conduct Ice Music concerts all over the United States, Italy, and Sweden.
Ice Music concerts are held from January through March
The video we’re watching was filmed at the ice concert hall in Sweden, and it’s been viewed more than a million times on YouTube. Ice concerts include all genres of music, and the visual effects are as stunning as the sound.
In the video, we see the inside of the igloo concert hall. Beautiful colors splash all over the place, and the sound of the icestruments is different and beautiful. There’s an audible difference compared to the instruments we’re usually used to hearing.
The ice instruments are visually stunning. Some are transparent while others are more white.6 Linhart explained that it depends on whether you use a blend of snow and water, or pure frozen water to create the instrument.
Tim has god 26 CDs of Ice Music under his belt
Ice has proved to be an amazing way of making music, and it sounds great in any musical style. This particular video shows young musicians playing various classical pieces, but rock, pop, country, and jazz would surprICE you, too.
Pure magic!
We can only imagine hearing this type of concert live.
Watch the video below!
Please SHARE this with your friends and family.
Source: YouTube/National Geographic; Li Violin Shop; Idea City; Twitter; Mountain Yahoos; IceMusicSweden