“Red snow” is snow coloured rose to blood red by a growth of algae or diatoms.

I moved to Norway in the winter, and the climate dramatically contrasted that of my home country England. Leaving behind everything I knew, I felt increasingly aware of the environment: the variety of snow spiralling in the wind; intricate details of vegetation enhanced by crystal formations; the soft sun and bright landscape; footprints suggesting their own scenario… and the potential colour lying dormant.

Microclimate II: Red Snow is the second work in a series entitled Microclimate where each work is structurally balanced, not in a symmetrical sense, but through the ‘life’ of one articulation resulting in a subsequent and counterbalancing reaction. I have attempted to concentrate the beauty and violence of a natural landscape into the ‘microclimate’ of the work — forming a new ‘organisational space’ yet reflecting, in acoustic form, the natural world and source inspiration.

Microclimate II: Red Snow was realized in 1998 at Notam (Norsk nettverk for Teknologi, Akustikk og Musikk / Norwegian network for Technology, Acoustics and Music) in Oslo (Norway) and premiered on May 26, 1999 during the Music Factory Contemporary Music Festival in Bergen (Norway).

Composition

• 1998, Norwegian network for Technology, Acoustics and Music, Oslo (Norway)

Revision

• 2001, Norwegian network for Technology, Acoustics and Music, Oslo (Norway)

Premiere

• May 26, 1999, Concert, Bergen (Norway)