Jessica Ackerley applied to an Arctic residency on a whim, partly motivated by a childhood spent reading Farley Mowat's accounts of Northern Canada and a long-held desire to reach the polar regions. What they found in Svalbard, Norway — one of the furthest points north on the planet — was almost the inverse of what they'd imagined: the gap between preconceived idea and lived experience became the subject. The island carries centuries of layered history, from fur traders and whalers to coal excavation to current scientific research on climate change, and sits at a geopolitical flashpoint as nations jockey for influence over the Arctic. Ackerley describes their ongoing work rooted in that experience as an attempt to share something most audiences will never witness directly — and to let music do what language can't quite manage: convey the essence of being there, and make listeners question what they thought the Arctic was.

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