Halla Steinunn Stefánsdóttir:

Swedish based but Estonian born Mirjam Tally and I first collaborated in 2014 when I commissioned her to write a new work for the chamber ensemble Nordic Affect. I was immediately taken by Mirjam’s sonic world and her way of writing where she asked me to explore the sonic resistances and possibilities of my instrument. I knew of her activity as an electronic improviser and her interest in field recordings and so, when I was formulating a project around ‘material exchange’ related to field recordings I immediately contacted Mirjam and commissioned a solo violin work.

This led to a process where we shared field recordings but also sent us into the studio where we deployed my method of using my field recording kit on the inside of the violin. The resulting archive became the foundation of the electronic part, which in return affected and shaped the writing of the solo score. The electronics were released by Mirjam on an album in 2017, which won the Swedish Manifest indie prize. The work is now released for the first time together with its solo part. The title ‘In the Bottomless Hollow of the Winter Sky’ is a fragment from the writings of the Estonian poet Kriistina Ehin, whose work Mirjam and I both hold in high regard.

– Halla Steinunn Stefánsdóttir, April 19, 2022