SD34 Iceland: Ice Lasers

DESCRIPTION:

• In Iceland: Ice Lasers, get a collection of otherworldly underwater ice lasers. Hear sci-fi impacts as the slow movement of the glacier causes the lagoon to crack and groan under immense pressure. Hear rich resonance from an underwater cathedral and visceral crackling like alien languages. Stand atop the lagoon ice and everything seems still, but drill a hole and place a hydrophone into the water and the sonic world explodes. 
  
• This library offers you the sounds of a natural wonder only heard in rare arctic conditions. I hope you enjoy these recordings too. Thanks for listening. 
  

DEMO:

DEMO (SPECTROGRAM): 

• The hydrophones picked up massive amounts of ultrasonic frequencies (up to about 90 kHz). View the spectrogram – here. 

KEY FEATURES:

• Otherworldly ice lasers
• Tonal ice (ICETonl)
• Ice impacts (ICEImpt)
• Close and distant perspectives
  
• Small and large lasers
• 1287 underwater perspectives
• 33 surface perspectives
• Shots, Cannons, Twangs, Booms, Thumps, Splats, and more
• Please note – to showcase the power of these sounds, I used some compression and limiting when making the demo. However, I did not use a compressor or limiter on the files you will receive in the sound library. 
• If you need crashes (ICECrsh), breaks (ICEBrk), friction (ICEFric), or Movement (ICEMvmt) check out SD35 Iceland: Calving Glaciers

RECORDING STORIES:

• I'll write a full blog post about this trip in the future, but for now here are few stories from my adventures. 
  
• In March 2023 I worked with an ice climbing guide to explore the frozen glacial lagoons of Iceland. I've been fascinated by the sounds of lake ice for many years, but it is insanely difficult to record. I was hopeful that the pressure of the moving glacier (even in winter) would cause the frozen lagoon to come alive. 
  
• The glacier didn't disappoint. My guide and I explored the lagoon, drilled holes in the 2-foot thick lagoon ice, placed hydrophones into the murky water below, and even camped on a floating iceberg that was frozen into the lagoon!
  
• Stand atop the lagoon ice and everything seems still, but drill a hole and place a hydrophone into the water and the sonic world explodes. 
  
• The temps were as cold as -30F with the wind chill, so it was a wild adventure. The holes I drilled for the hydrophones kept flash freezing and the cables were in danger of being trapped in the ice!
  
• Just before I planned to pull the hydros out for the night, I realized that the hole we drilled has started to freeze from the bottom up! So chipping out the ice at the top to free the cable would not longer work. The cable was still free but the hole had narrowed and I could no longer pull out the head of the hydrophone. 
• My guide said that we could try to drill out the hole again or chip out some ice, but we would most likely damage the cable and ruin the hydrophone anyway. 
• So, I made the decision to sacrifice a pair of my DIY hydros to the recording gods and freeze the cables into the ice. It was one of the best recording decisions I've ever made. 
  
• The cables froze into the ice, but the hydro was able to hang into the water below. Because of this setup, I was able to record continuously for about 100 hours. There was an astonishing variety of sounds of those 4 days, and I hope you enjoy the fabulous sounds of the Iceland's disappearing glaciers. 
  
• If you've got 60 seconds, here's a ridiculous YouTube Short I made about sacrificing my hydros – How to Destroy Your Hydrophones. 
  

FILE LIST:

• View larger version or Download CSV 

LIBRARY INFO: 

GEAR USED:

• DIY Hydrophones
  
• LOM Usi Pro
• Zoom F3