Arts / ‘Sonic postcard’ of Shetland set to offer immersive sound performance
A NEW immersive sound performance shaped by Shetland’s environment is coming to Mareel.
Nordic Resonance will feature a performance by Maltese percussionist and sound artist Renzo Spiteri and Scottish flautist Richard Craig.
It is taking place at Mareel Friday 6 February, followed by an artist talk/Q&A.
Using sound as a “lived experience of place” and developed through deep listening and extended engagement with the Shetland environment, Nordic Resonance explores how sound can carry the presence of landscape and its atmosphere beyond the place of origin and into theatres and performance spaces.
“Nordic Resonance is a contemporary sonic postcard of a place that I lived in for the past six years where I had the opportunity to immerse myself in the island’s natural environment and to gather an extensive sound library over an extended period of time,” Spiteri said.
“Shetland’s natural environment fed into the creation of this new work, and since the sounds of nature are ever changing and never repeating, Richard and I felt that our own playing should reflect this sense of impermanence.
“Each performance is created in the moment, allowing a new conversation between nature and music to unfold every time we perform.”
Environmental sounds, whether presented in their pure form or transformed into abstracted textures, are key elements that shaped the creation of Nordic Resonance, with the musicians responding to, reacting against and creating counterpoints to the field recordings.
The result is said to be a “conversation between environment and artist, between sound and sensation, between what is heard and what lies just beneath”.
Spiteri’s performance practice is expansive, weaving percussion, found objects, live electronics, and improvisation into richly textured experiences.
Winner of the 2025 Royal Television Society Craft and Design Award (sound – non-scripted) and an Emmy news and documentary nominee (outstanding sound – documentary), Spiteri has over three decades of international performance experience, performing across genres ranging from spoken word and world music to jazz, classical, and experimental work.
Praised by Gramophone Magazine for his “primal, at times ecstatic state of Fauvist force”, Richard Craig has developed a distinctive approach to contemporary flute performance.
He has collaborated with renowned ensembles such as Musikfabrik, Klangforum Wien and the Riot Ensemble, and is a noted improviser and educator, currently serving as director of performance at the University of Edinburgh.
The project is supported by the National Lottery through Creative Scotland, with additional performances scheduled in Malta and Glasgow.
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