AMB56 Greenland: Underwater Icebergs

DESCRIPTION: 

• In Greenland: Underwater Icebergs, get a collection of otherworldly underwater ice ambiences. Hear melodic pings as massive air bubbles explosively release and resonant booms echoing as icebergs snap in half. Hear delicate fizzles rising and visceral crackling like alien languages. Hear this icy world from above/below at the same time and witness the speed of sound moving 4x faster underwater. 
• This library offers you the sounds of a natural wonder only heard in rare arctic conditions. Recording among the giants that killed the Titanic was truly wonderful. I hope you enjoy these recordings too. Thanks for listening. 

KEY FEATURES: 

• Booming underwater iceberg calving
• Massive icebergs breaking in half
• Underwater rain of melting icebergs
• Melodic pings echoing in underwater fjords
• Rising fizzles
• Visceral clicks like alien languages
• Close and distant perspectives
• Boat and shoreline perspectives
• 5 meter to 1000 meter depths
• Five above/below perspectives with MKH8020s and hydrophones. These 4-channel recordings are included in the "Stereo" version of the library. 
• Clicking sounds from marine wildlife such as crustaceans may also be part of the soundscapes, but the primary sound is melting icebergs. 
• Please note: the "Pitch Shifted Demo" was made to demonstrate the potential of the sounds in this library. However, this sound library does NOT include pitch shifted sounds, only mastered field recordings.

RECORDING STORIES:

• During my recording 2022 expedition to Greenland I found a fascinating natural phenomenon. The magical underwater world of melting icebergs.
• It is very tricky to record underwater sounds. Many hydrophone recordings I’ve made myself and heard from others are conceptually interesting because they show the unheard world below the waves, but they sound like tinny 8-bit recordings that don’t captivate my ears.
• That finally changed in Greenland with a combination of some wonderful DIY hydrophones and the amazing underwater acoustics of the rocky fjords.
• As you would imagine, the underwater space makes just as much impact on the sound of the recording as the world above. For example, if you record out in the middle of giant fjord with a depth of 1000 meters, there is very little resonance. That's the equivalent to recording on a flat prairie. However, find rocky fjords with depths ranging from 50 to 300 meters and they sounded like cathedrals! The pinging and booming of the icebergs could be heard bouncing around the walls with wonderful echoes.
• Once I dialed in the acoustics of the area, I explored the huge variety of icebergs in those 50-300 meter fjords.
• Icebergs are constantly moving. So you can't sit at anchor to record them. They also randomly break and roll which can be extremely dangerous. You have to do a dance with the icebergs by getting close enough to them to record, figure out the wind/tide/current, and then position yourself so that you can safely record from the boat for 10-15 minutes, and then turning off the engine.
• I mostly recorded with a 2 meter spacing between the microphones and with depths of 1-3 meters for the hydrophones. This was partly because I needed to be able to pull the hydrophones out super quickly (so they didn’t get caught in the propellor) if an iceberg started to break or roll. This happened a few times and we had to quickly get the hell out of Dodge. We’d hear the monster starting to break up, I’d grab the hydrophones, and the boat driver would start the engine and floor it to get us to safety.
• For a few takes I recorded with MKH8020s above water and hydrophones below. This was fascinating because the booms of icebergs breaking would arrive about 4 times faster underwater! If you listen in parallel, a natural delay appears! Download a Quad file to listen – here. 
• As well as recording from boats, I did several shoreline sessions that I called "ice fishing". I rigged the hydrophones to a tripod with two extended selfie sticks and stood on rocks during low tide. Small icebergs move a lot, so I had to slowly dance the hydrophones around the moving ice so that the cables and hydrophones were not smashed! This yielded some intimate recordings with visceral clicks and ultrasonics frequencies.
• Icebergs are part of the lifecycle of the glaciers, so I don't think of them as a separate category of sounds. They are part of the wonderful sonic world of glaciers.
• 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:

• View larger version or Download CSV.
• A spectrogram is included for each audio file. Double click on the photo in the file list to enlarge.

LIBRARY INFO:

GEAR USED:

• DIY Hydrophones
  
• Sennheiser MKH8020 pair
• Zoom F6 and F3