AURORA and Jacob Collier have teamed up to perform a mashup of their songs ‘A Rock Somewhere’ and ‘The Seed’ on an iceberg in order to raise awareness of the climate crisis.
The two pop stars played in front of glaciers in Svalbard, a Norwegian archipelago between mainland Norway and the North Pole, for a special performance in collaboration with Greenpeace.
An unconventional setting for a concert, the backdrop of icebergs and snowcapped mountains was in a bid to “highlight the urgent need to protect the oceans and stop deep sea mining,” per a press release. Greenpeace are highlighting the current threats facing our oceans and their ecosystems, including acidification, climate change, industrial fishing and pollution – an urgent cause given the Norwegian government’s current plans to allow commercial mining operations to begin in the Arctic.
“I was bowled over at the sheer magnitude of the Arctic – and also its deep fragility,” Collier said. “The oceans are our primary ally in preventing truly disastrous consequences of climate change from taking hold. The impact of deep sea mining is too disastrous to mention – we urgently must protect the world’s oceans – and act NOW before it’s too late.”
Meanwhile, AURORA, who is from Norway, added: “We need to understand, the more we interfere with, or the more we violate, nature we will have a lesser chance to survive the consequences of our actions.
“We compete with each other as nations but we forget the one thing we all have in common. If we keep interfering with the few untouched areas of this Earth, there will be no future. We have to stop deep-sea mining. I hope our Prime Minister and the other world leaders will do what is right. Not for them, but for the children of the children.”
To raise awareness of the issue, the duo performed an emotional, piano mashup of the two tracks, underscored by the sounds of the Arctic ocean around them. Check it out below.
A Global Ocean Treaty was agreed by UN negotiators last year, which promises to protect 30 per cent of the world’s oceans by 2030. However, some governments now want to mine in the deep sea. “We hope this collaboration will inspire millions of people around the world to join our mission to protect the oceans for future generations,” says Dr Laura Meller of Greenpeace Nordic. “We still have time, but governments must act now. They must protect 30% of the world’s oceans by 2030 and introduce a moratorium on deep sea mining.”
Currently, 32 countries support a deep sea mining moratorium, precautionary pause or ban on deep sea mining in the international seabed, which covers almost 60 per cent of the earth. 58 leading technology companies have also committed to not sourcing minerals mined from the deep sea, including Google, Samsung, Apple, Volvo and BMW.
In other news, AURORA recently announced her second book, What Happened To The Heart?, named after her recent album of the same name.
Due for release on October 17, the book is a full-colour reproduction of AURORA’s personal notebook that pulls back the curtain on how she created her latest album. It also features all the lyrics from the album, original artwork and photography. Pre-order the book here.
In a four-star review of ‘What Happened To The Heart?’, NME wrote: “Like Björk before her (and we should stress now that this is where the similarity ends), AURORA has often been plagued with this patronising image of being another “ethereal” Nordic witch. This, though, is a fiery record dealing in reality – dancing with the imps rather than away with the fairies.”