This ensemble piece was written for I.C.E. (International Contemporary Ensemble) in the USA, the oldest ensemble who I have working relationship with. They are like my family. However this is the first piece I have written especially for them.

I started the piece by imagining the sound of golden dust was on the palm of my hand which I would blow gently and the sound of ice-sheets cracking as they rub against each other. This work uses a lot of handheld percussion and specialist percussion like the Dulcimer and the Kalimba. Most of these instruments are owned by the players of I.C.E., who would say "I bought this instrument years ago, but nobody writes music for it and I would love to play it one day" Whilst having a work session with them over Skype I would sometimes see in the corner of the screen other exotic percussion instruments - and would suggest that they used those too. I then visited Camden Town in London, to see if there are any strange handheld percussion instruments which I could buy and try out.

In the work the plucked sounds represent hard sharp edged fragments of the ice which is breaking into small dust-like fragments which then melt before the final bass flute part. This is where time and texture is stretched then contracts then expands again which is like water which is in-between its frozen and liquid state. The final section has a big bass flute solo, which for me represents the flow of water within the ice - part melted, part frozen, but melting slowly.

Dai Fujikura (edited by Harry Ross)