The Last Frost Fair

Listen

Released on Stolen Mirror.

Description

It’s early in the morning, in that special hour of quiet when nothing stirs. Outside the space that defines home, the world is dark. The house settles fractionally into the earth. In this year nineteen-ninety-three it seems certain that nothing will ever change. All futures are written. Destiny is frozen.

I am listening to music using the popular medium of the time, the compact disc. This particular disc becomes stuck, repeating a short recycled loop for a minute. Then the laser shifts lazily onwards, only to get stuck again a moment later.

Transfixed, I listen. The world is frozen. The hour is eternal. Crystalline sounds circle my head in a beautiful array of ever-changing stasis.

Eventually the looping ends. Sound stops. I take note of my surroundings, rise to my feet, walk over to the CD player, and power the unit down.

Credits

Created by Robin Parmar at Studio Ubiquity, Canada and Ireland, in 1999 and 2019. Mastered in 2020.

Design from a poster for the London Frost Fair of 1683.

Titles from the book Frostiana; or A History of the River Thames In a Frozen State: and the Wonderful Effects of Frost, Snow, Ice, and Cold, in England, and in Different Parts of the World Interspersed with Various Amusing Anecdotes, published 1814.

Composition, production, and artwork by Robin Parmar.