A Closer Listen
After Seeking the Sources of Streams, Cicada is now tracing the paths left by glaciers, Gazing the Shades of White. Their journey takes them from Greenland’s Ilulissat fjord to Iceland’s famed Jökulsárlón lagoon, from New Zealand’s Aoraki to Taiwan’s juniper-lined Snow Mountain. The music is a meditation on the impact of glaciers, whether intact, divided into floating ice sculptures, or gone forever.
The ensemble is perfectly suited for the task; their music has always been beautiful, suffused with sweetness and a sense of wonder, inspired by the elements of nature, great or small. The title track produces a sense of soft excitement as the journey begins, deepened by the entrance of the cello, which conveys the serious undercurrent. One realizes that the quest will have a dual outcome: on the one hand, awe at the majesty of nature, on the other, melancholy as one realizes all that has already been lost and continues to be endangered. The track stops and restarts at the end, suddenly reflective, humble in the face of ice melt.
“Journey of Drifting Ice” is a playful piece, helping one to picture blue light refracted through chunks of dislodged glaciers, gathering in lagoons, washed up on forgiving shores. Children love these sculptures, having the ability to touch something that traveled from so high up and so far away. The interplay of instruments is a reminder that nature is a source of joy. While the tone turns serious in the center (as we tell the kids why these glaciers are washing up), the finale is warm, like mittens just taken out of the dryer.
Some tracks trace the glacier without the ice: “Where the Glacier Once Passed,” closer “Once Covered In Ice.” The music is infused with a sense of gratitude. The glaciers carved the valleys, then melted, just as people who leave an impact on our lives, then pass on. The piano and guitar are crucial in communicating such tender realizations. “Junipers by the Glacial Lake” adds quiet birdsong, a reminder that not all melt is harmful; the valleys are nourished by the water that it provides. The music momentarily retracts to reveal the stream.
By the time the album ends, one has been led from winter to spring, from prehistoric times to the here and now. Sadness for the ephemeral is engulfed by a sense of scale. Our lives are far more finite than those of glaciers; how fortunate to have met at this juncture. (Richard Allen)
Fri Nov 14 00:01:52 GMT 2025