When a group of percussionists from Irkutsk gathered on the frozen surface of Lake Baikal and began striking it with their hands, the ice answered with deep, hollow, drum-like tones. Their video, BAIKAL ICE live sound, turned the world’s deepest lake into a giant percussion instrument and drew attention around the world in late 2013.
Watch the Baikal ice drummers
The video was published on YouTube as BAIKAL ICE live sound by Ethnobeat “irkDarbuka” Irkutsk. Listen with headphones: each strike rings slightly differently depending on where and how the ice is hit.
The musicians: Ethnobit percussion studio, Irkutsk
The players belong to the Ethnobit (Etnobit) ethnic percussion studio, led by Natalia Vlasevskaya and based at Irkutsk National Research Technical University, where its drummers regularly perform. Speaking to Smithsonian, Vlasevskaya described the discovery as an accident: a woman thumped the ice with her hand, the sound made her husband stop and investigate, and the group found that one particular patch of ice rang while others nearby did not. They played it with their hands, like a hand drum.
The Baikal session became a local landmark. The studio’s first composition played on Baikal ice earned it a place in the Book of Records of the Irkutsk Region, and it went on to organise a festival of music played on Baikal’s ice hummocks, which earned a second entry.
Lake Baikal: the oldest and deepest lake on Earth
- Age: an estimated 25 to 30 million years, the oldest lake in the world.
- Depth: 1,642 m at its deepest point, the deepest lake on Earth.
- Volume: about 23,600 cubic kilometres, roughly 19 percent of the planet’s unfrozen fresh surface water and the largest freshwater lake by volume.
- Length: 636 km, curving through southern Siberia.
- Wildlife: home to the nerpa, or Baikal seal (Pusa sibirica), found nowhere else.
- Protection: a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1996.
Baikal’s ice season
Baikal freezes for about four to five months a year, from early January until May or even June in the north. The ice is typically 0.5 to 1.4 metres thick, and more than 2 metres where wind and pressure pile it into hummocks. In winter the water beneath is famously clear, with visibility reaching 30 to 40 metres in open sections, which is why photographs of Baikal ice often look like glass. The drummers’ session took place in about minus 20°C on ice roughly a metre thick.
Winter visitors usually base themselves in Irkutsk or the lakeside resort village of Listvyanka, and a winter ice road links the mainland to Olkhon Island. Conditions vary from place to place on a lake this size, so go onto the ice with an experienced local guide.
More ice music
Baikal’s drummers found their instrument in nature. The Norwegian musician Terje Isungset goes the other way and carves his own: see Terje Isungset’s purpose-made ice instruments. For the lake itself in winter, browse Baikal’s ice seen through landscape photography.
Sources
Video: BAIKAL ICE live sound, Ethnobeat “irkDarbuka” Irkutsk. Smithsonian Magazine; INRTU: Ethnobit percussion studio; Wikipedia: Lake Baikal. Story first reported by Daily Mail. Photo: Ethnobeat irkDarbuka, Irkutsk.
This is great. I wonder if the dwellers of the ocean are moving to the beat of the music. I would like to think they are. They may send a beat back to you.
ReplyDelete<3
Deletelike!
DeleteHermoso, genial amigos, sonidos para el alma inquieta y los corazones palpigantes
ReplyDeleteI don't believe it... Sounds too good and perfect, when there is no microphone around the ice (no wind, no parasite sounds). The ice is on tune which is pretty much impossible! Anyway, hitting on ice doesn't produce an amplified bass sound as this one.
ReplyDeleteGreat video though! Very poetic and inspiring :)
i wondered the same as there is no outside noise and no mic's on the ice...hmmm
Deletei agree, nice idea, but ice making some of those sounds is impossible.... i need more proof
DeleteWatch the entire video - including how it's shot. Then you can go back and comment again.
DeleteIt would be natural to use some contact mics on the ice surface but I don't see those anywhere either :/
DeletePariterre, hello from Siberia! I live in Irkutsk, it`s near Baikal. I was at Baikal many times in all of
Deleteseasons. Once I walked with my friends on a frozen Baikal in many kilometers from the coast, there was windless and calm. And there were no any sounds, it was deafening silence.
It was so great after city noisy life!
That`s why it`s possible to create such track without parasite sounds.
But if you keep your ears open, you`ll hear this track not so perfect. There is a parasite sounds, when people move their hands, their outerwear is rustle.
P.S.: Sorry, my English is not good %)
Love the breaking ice sounds throughout, but I am also skeptical about the other sounds.
DeleteParasite sounds???? ARE YOU KIDDING ME? There are no insects alive in the cold of winter!!!
Delete"parasite" does not mean "insects" by default.. what Vera meant was "unwanted" or "undesirable" sounds.. sounds that interfere with the sounds of the ice..(as a native Russian language speaker, I understand what she is trying to say)
DeleteI think that the term "parasite sound" is a very good one as it represents the destroying of atmosphere and intrusion of extraneous, unwanted sounds. I'm not a Russian speaker. It worked for me.
DeleteYour comment sounds nice, but it shows a lack of understanding of the technology and production that goes into videos today. These sounds are definitely possible without the need for a bunch of microphones attached to the ice or right beside the places they are working.
DeleteBeautiful!! Looks like they were having fun. But what I don't get, is, people write in their opinion, that's what this is for, right? So, one person didn't like it, says it's boring, and he gets attacked.........
ReplyDeleteSometimes it's not always the right thing to do, to state one's opinion. If you're a captive audience, that's one thing; but to wander on to a site that you are free to leave and say "boring", that's just rude and trollish.
ReplyDeleteFor those nay saying - watch the entire video... including credits - which includes them showing the type and specific kind of microphone used.. it also shows them selecting specific blocks/shards of ice which produce specific types of tones. Is the video set up? Yes ... but they really are playing it, and they really are just using the ice.
ReplyDeleteVery cool.
ReplyDeleteFrom the video, these people are plaing the natural ice, unless they have a multi-million dollar audio/video lab to fake this video, which is more improbable than the world can be a lovely place to be if you experiment with what you are given and have fun.
I was at Lake Baikal in May of 2001 at the mouth of the Angara River as it flows out of the lake. The ice was melting but still a foot or two thick. It was breaking off in vertical shards and as they fell of and hit each other the soud was like thousands of little tinkling bells. I was amazed at what I was hearing. I believe this video. I suppose it has to do with the density of extremely cold ice. But these sounds are entirely possible.
ReplyDeleteWOW!
ReplyDeleteI just think human beings are WONDERFUL -whether they actually did do this or not..... what imagination, zest and creativity!!! Fab!
ReplyDeleteis siberia the coldest place on earth?
ReplyDeleteNo once I read that there are places on the artic or antartic poles that can reach -50 centigrades.
DeleteThey said I wouldn't believe it, and they're right, I don't believe it. But I like the spirit of the video a lot better than I like the slowed down crickets hoax.
ReplyDeleteThank you for such a joyful image and sound to watch. Very heart filling. Don't listen to the killjoys.
ReplyDeleteIncredibly Awesome and mind blowing! Being a percussionist myself, I wish i could jam with them out there some day!
ReplyDeleteSO COOL!!
ReplyDeleteMore like 1 inch thick, from the look of it.
ReplyDeleteWho´d say that Salsa was born in Siberia! :v
ReplyDeletewhy must people be sceptical? just enjoy the beauty of it and let things thrill you.
ReplyDeleteUnbelievable
ReplyDeleteUnbelievable
ReplyDeleteVery cool and fun way to make music. For the dis-believers, I've been a recording engineer and songwriter for 40+ years (experimental percussion is a passion) and it would be way more trouble to fake this than to make it. "Found-Sound" has been popular for decades and this is just another version. Obviously real. "Slowed-down crickets" - HA!!
ReplyDeletehttps://www.snowaddiction.org/2013/11/the-coolest-music-in-the-world-listen-to-siberian-ice-drummers-use-frozen-lake-baikal-as-an-incredible-musical-instrument.html
ReplyDeleteTHIS SONG NEVER OLDENS!!
ReplyDeletegoo
ReplyDelete