STEIN I-III

For wind instrument, string instrument, and video
Commissioned by Mean Steel
13 min
2022

Stein I-III (Official Music Videos):



Photos from live performance by Mean Steel:


This work tells the story of three stones from the Lofoten archipelago in Northern Norway. Imagine what the stones around us have experienced, what tales could they tell if they had a voice? In this work, I’ve explored three special stones both in a sonic, textural, and conceptual context. A 3.5 billion-year-old gneiss from Reine, a many-colored quartz from a secret location, and a stone from the mountain pass of Einangen where a young girl was buried like a goddess 2000 years ago.

Stein I: Gneis
Some of the world’s oldest rocks can be found in Lofoten in Northern Norway. Especially in the Reine area, where 3.5 billion-year-old gneiss is visible as surrounding rocks and majestic mountain peaks. Gneiss is a non-magnetic metamorphic rock, formed at very high temperatures and pressures. It has a foliated surface, often sporting beautiful bands or wave patterns. A gneiss rock, like this one from Reine, has probably experienced the very creation of Lofoten. It might have experienced a Lofoten inhabited by dinosaurs? It for sure has experienced the arrival of the human race, from the very first hunter-gatherers straying all the way up here to the high north, to the present times’ mass tourism from all over the world.

Stein II: Kvarts
Quartz is the most abundant and widely distributed mineral found at the Earth’s surface, from massive mountain tops to tiny grains of sand. Quartz can be everything from milky white, yellow, red-ish to clear as glass. It can have a  smooth or rugged texture, often mixed with other minerals. Quartz is one of the strongest minerals in nature and is used in everything from sandpaper to glass, from countertops to jewelry. It’s also used for some of the world’s most accurate clocks as it vibrates at a very precise and specific frequency. This quartz-rock, found at a secret location in Lofoten, has probably experienced quite a lot, but I believe, this is the very first time it is used by humans.

Stein III: Einangen
At Einangen, a beautiful mountain pass, with a view of both the inner and outer side of the Lofoten archipelago, you can find one of the largest and most prominent stone circle burial grounds from the iron age in Northern Europe. 2000 years ago, a young girl was buried here, in a grave unmatched by any other from that time. Who was she? A princess? A seer with magical abilities? A goddess? A human sacrifice made in hopes of better times to come? No one knows, but if stones could talk, like this stone from the same mountain pass, a bit further up, with a full view of Einangen for thousands of years, it could probably tell a story or two.

This piece is part of my ongoing work with sound choreography, where visual material and/or movements are interpreted sonically. In «Stein I-III» the performers have specific instructions of what and how to play, all connected to the thumbs touching the stones in the video projection - visible to both the performers and audience.

Concept, video, and composition: Tine Surel Lange
Commissioned and performed by: Mean Steel
Wind instruments: Ola Asdahl Rokkones 
String instrument: Hans-Urban Andersson
Funded by: Arts Council Norway
Premiere March 24th 2022, Vinterfestuka 2022, Narvik  (NO)

Photo: Tine Surel Lange




© 2022 Tine Surel Lange