Available Tuesday, June 30th

DESCRIPTION: 

Load up a powerful snowmobile with lots of outdoor gear. Hook a big sled to the back, load it full of even more recording gear, and then drive fifty kilometers out onto a giant frozen lake in Northern Finland. That's the start of an adventure. 

Lake Inari is a massive lake with hundreds of islands. Its far above the arctic circle and has infinite opportunities to drill holes and explore the underwater soundscape.

There were some tricky conditions in March when I was there. You'd have thick ice, then a layer of water, then a bunch of snow on top of that. Basically, what's happening is the snow melts and creates a layer of water underneath...and that is sitting on top of the ice. That's super treacherous when trying to get places on a snowmobile. Its also quite disconcerting when you are driving through bunch of water on top of a frozen lake. It definitely makes you feel like you're going to fall through.

But the ice was still very thick in most places on the lake, a half meter (or more) at least. I brought a portable drill and ice auger to be able to get through the ice. I'd drill a hole for one hydrophone and then another hole two or three meters away. That would give me enough spacing for a nice stereo image. Then I'd use these big square pieces of foam with a slit cut in them. Then I'd bury that whole contraption over the hole with a bunch of snow in hopes that the ice wouldn't refreeze and trap my cable forever.

Luckily, this setup worked, and I didn't have to sacrifice any of my hydros to the recording gods. I was able to get some lovely living ice recordings as the ice creaked and boomed and thunked and tore and glugged and gurgled. Most of that happening as the temperature swung from above freezing to below freezing...and back again.

That's a wrap on my 145th sound library from the natural world, and I hope you enjoy listening. I'll talk to you again soon.

BEHIND THE SCENES: 

KEY FEATURES:

• Zero wildlife in these recordings
• Massive crunches, tears, and breaks
• Close thunks, and thumps
• Distant crackles
• Distant glugs

SPECTROGRAM DEMO:

• A compilation of my favorite sounds from this collection.
  

FILE LIST:

• View spectrograms for each track, search, and filter in the Airtable spreadsheet.
• Click "View larger version" in the bottom right corner of the File List below to open in a new tab. 
• Mobile File List viewing is limited. Use a desktop computer for the best experience. 
  

LIBRARY INFO:

GEAR USED:

• Gladys Hydrophone x2
• Lewitt LCT 540 S
• Zoom F3
• Zoom F6