The first time I saw Snow

Michael Snow - O som da neve (Culturgest, 22 Fevereiro 2018)

Michael Snow is a Canadian artist who now is eighty-nine years old and has been involved in both video, photography, sculpture, painting and music creation, throughout his life. He started his career as a jazz musician and is well known for being an improvisational jazz player. Snow got his recognition for breaking boundaries in music composition and the way one connects with the melodies and the reality around oneself. The brilliance of Michael Snow’s work is not that easy to describe, as it is very unorthodox but mainly because it may leave you astonished and with many questions regarding what you just witnessed.

I went to a Michael Snow’s The Sound of Snow concert in Culturgest, near Campo Pequeno in Lisbon, without a clue as to who he was and with no in-depth knowledge of his artistic repertoire or his evolution in time as a prolific artist. My girlfriend asked me to go to Snow’s concert with her and many times before she asked that I explore Snow’s production. I never did, so I went to the concert without any expectations.

As he walked on stage towards his piano, he seemed very calm, almost as if he wasn’t paying any attention to his audience, walking very slowly, barely looking at us, as if he was just there to present his work.

The good side of this was the impact of Snow’s unusual performance and personality, leaving me in awe. As he walked on stage towards his piano, he seemed very calm, almost as if he wasn’t paying any attention to his audience, walking very slowly, barely looking at us, as if he was just there to present his work. Eventually, I realized that what I saw was this close and very personal connection between Snow and the piano, as he literally played and explored all the possibilities for his hands on the piano keyboard.

you’re caught in a feeling of watching someone completely lost in the act of random and organic creation

There’s something both humorous and peaceful in Snow’s performances and music. From the way he physically plays the piano to the melodies produced, there’s nothing typical in it, and because of this, you’re caught in a feeling of watching someone completely lost in the act of random and organic creation.

Michael Snow doesn’t intend to give any explanation or logical reason for his productions, no visual references for his already absolutely abstract and chaotic music- even inside the abstractionism already present in music generally-, and that makes the experience provocative and subtly humorous, as Snow gives a sense of naiveness and extreme awareness of the beauty of his music.

Michael Snow doesn’t intend to give any explanation or logical reason for his productions, no visual references for his already absolutely abstract and chaotic music

          The main problem while writing about a concert was trying to describe it, especially in this case where the musician in question is inserted in a music style that makes it harder to provide a satisfactory way of showing the reader the idea of the event. In a way, I tried to show a less objective side of the performance and tried to focus on a more abstract and “transcendent” connection with the artist and his performance, which can make the text seem vague but also- and hopefully- may prevent it of being too confusing.

Francisco Machado