SD32 Greenland: Ice Xylophone

DESCRIPTION: 

• In Greenland: Ice Xylophone, get a collection of naturally melodic ice. Hear visceral cracks as crevasses widen and the glacier grinds forward. Hear pinging tones ringing in large ice caves and deep musical tones reverberating. Hear the ice xylophone pinging with beautiful melodies as ice crystals descend hundreds of meters into the depths of the glacier. 
• This library offers you the sounds of a natural wonder only heard in rare glacial conditions. Glaciers sing and I find it amazing. I hope you enjoy them too. Thanks for listening. 

KEY FEATURES:

• Ice xylophones pinging with melodic tones
• Large and small icefalls
• Massive extended debris falls
• Ice axe impacts
• Snowy avalanches
• Visceral cracking
• Thunderous booms
• Clinking sun crust
• Visceral icy friction

RECORDING STORIES:

• During my recording expedition to Greenland I found a fascinating natural phenomenon. Occasionally, when glaciers split to create deep crevasses, thin flakes of ice still connect between walls. If you can find a crevasse with multiple flakes a beautiful natural wonder occurs: the ice xylophone. 
• The top of the glaciers I visited were covered in a thin crust of partially melted ice called sun crust (think mojito ice). If you use an ice axe to knock a chunk of sun crust into these crevasses something magical happens. The sun crust pings off the flakes on the way down with beautiful melodic tones! Each flakes is a different size and at a different depth, so they have different audible pitches.
• My glacier guides Nicco and Mike became my foley artists and we spend many hours creating icefalls. I hung my microphones into the crevasse and they would trigger the icefall using their ice axes and crampons. 
• Many of these sounds were created by my guides, but they can also occur naturally as chunks of ice occasionally break and fall. These natural icefalls were captured by leaving drop rigs hanging in resonant crevasses for 24+ hours. That usually meant hanging the mics over the edge by their microphone cables and leaving the recorder in a dry bag on the edge (weighed down by a rock or clipped to an ice screw). 
• The acoustics of large crevasses can be amazing. As the glacier moves, ice tears open in astonishing shapes and then meltwater sculpts it even further. These large crevasses reverberate like icy cathedrals with intricate and complex reverbs unlike anything I’ve heard in the natural world. Finding a crevasse with great reverberations is just as important as finding one with flakes connecting the walls. 
• I love finding naturally occurring musical elements in the wild. I was captivated by the melodic tones of this falling ice. These falling melodies are one of the ways the glaciers sing, but they also sing with droning melodic tones! Hear those in Greenland: Ice Caves.
• All of the glaciers I recorded in Greenland are currently retreating an unprecedented rate and could potentially disappear by the end of this century. I hope these sounds help you to love these living rivers of ice. The more people who develop a visceral connection to the beautiful sounds of glaciers, the more likely we are to slow their retreat. Thanks for listening. 

FILE LIST:

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• A spectrogram is included for each audio file. Double click on the photo in the file list to enlarge.

LIBRARY INFO:

GEAR USED:

• LOM Usi
• Micbooster Clippy
• Sony D100
• Sony A10
• Cinela LEO20 Blimps
• Bubblebee Wind Bubbles