About
On the shortest day of the year, Sonja Strange and Barbara Skovmand present The Hesitation of Light, a concert performance held in the Spiral Ramp of the Round Tower in Copenhagen. The piece is inspired by Ole Rømer's discovery that light has a finite speed, and it closes the Round Tower's LIGHT YEAR 2026 programme, which marks the 350th anniversary of that discovery.
What to expect
This is an immersive experience rather than a seated concert. The audience stands in the Spiral Ramp, a cool, curving space inside the tower, and the sound moves around you as the performance unfolds.
- Sonja Strange sings while moving slowly upward through the tower in a continuous spiral.
- Barbara Skovmand responds with a sound sculpture in the spirit of the après-Baschet instruments. It uses glass rods rubbed with wet fingers, with the vibrations passed to steel plate resonators that amplify and distort the sound.
- The composition was created by Toke Odin.
Practical details
The performance takes place at 4:30 pm and again at 5:30 pm. No advance tickets are needed; you pay the standard admission fee on the day. That fee also covers the permanent exhibition on Ole Rømer and His Great Discovery and the special exhibition Light Echoes, so you can see the science behind the music before or after the performance.
Full details are available on the Round Tower's website.