Songs of the Sea: Wild Wet World and Whale Song Sound Bath
Composer Cosmo Sheldrake has used recordings of marine life to immerse listeners in the underwater soundscape
CASTING YOUR EYE OVER A CALM SEA, YOU’D BE FORGIVEN FOR THINKING LIFE Beneath THE WAVES IS PEACEFUL AND SERENE… IT’S ANYTHING BUT! HWDT provide acoustic data to artists and musicians who raise awareness of the soundscape beneath the waves. here, we share two recent collaborations With ARTISTS who HAVE UTILISED sounds we’ve recorded during monitoring expeditions to create beautiful songs of the sea.
Cosmo Sheldrake
Cosmo Sheldrake has composed an epic new album ‘Wild Wet World’. All the music on the EP is composed entirely from songs of the sea and features vocalisations of the West Coast Community of killer whales - their voices can be heard on the track ‘Nekton’. Also featured on Cosmo’s EP are humpback whales singing, sperm whales clicking, Weddell seals courting, coral reefs spluttering, bucktoothed parrot fish crunching, an oyster toad fish grunting, shrimp snapping, long horned sculpins honking, blue whales lamenting and haddock drumming. The music is composed entirely out of recordings of these animals and the sound worlds that they inhabit.
Tom Mustill
Tom Mustill, author of the critically acclaimed book ‘How To Speak Whale’, has also incorporated our acoustic recordings in his audio installation ‘Whale Song Sound Bath’, which takes the listener on a journey into the soundscape beneath the waves. Tom is a biologist turned filmmaker and writer, specialising in stories where people and nature meet . He has created a immersive experience which transports you to an underwater realm through a narrated sound installation composed of noises gathered from the marine environment. Acoustic recordings of natural sounds - snapping shrimp, common dolphin, bottlenose dolphin, Risso’s dolphin and white beaked dolphin - alongside anthropogenic noises - military sonar, boat noise - were provided to Tom to fill his ‘sound bath’.
HWDT has been invited to participate an exciting event at the British Library on Friday 19th May: Late at the Library: Calls of the Wild with Cosmo Sheldrake. Joining an eclectic mix of people, including Cosmo and Tom, who bring different experiences and art forms to the event, all seeking to immerse the visitor in a world of wildlife sounds, images and stories.
All the acoustic data HWDT provided to Cosmo and Tom were gathered during monitoring expeditions on board our research vessel, Silurian. Both artists were sent our rare acoustic recordings of the West Coast Community of killer whales - we believe these are the only known recorded vocalisations of this unique population.
HWDT have been monitoring the West Coast Community for decades and, over time, the population has decreased. In recent years only two old males - John Coe and Aquarius - have been reported. The vocalisations of the West Coast Community were recorded during monitoring expeditions in the 2007 and 2021 field seasons. The recording made in 2021 is particularly poignant as it only features John Coe and Aquarius, the suspected last of their kind.
Aquarius and John Coe, thought to be the last remaining members of a unique population of killer whales known as the West Coast Community
“We are thrilled to be included in Cosmo’s wonderful album and Tom’s immersive Sound Bath. Both beautifully showcasing some of the noises found beneath the waves. We hope everyone who listens to ‘Wild Wet World’ and experiences ‘Whale Song Sound Bath’ will have a better appreciation of the underwater acoustic world, and consider the impact human-made noise has on the marine soundscape.”
HOW WE RECORD WHALE VOICES
The hydrophone lies coiled on deck, ready to be deployed to gather acoustic data
HWDT gather underwater recordings on board our research vessel, Silurian, using a towed hydrophone – think underwater microphone. This Passive Acoustic Monitoring plays a key role in our research activities. HWDT is a pioneer in the field of underwater acoustic monitoring – Silurian recorded its first cetacean sounds on a towed hydrophone back in 2002. Since then, we’ve complied a comprehensive acoustic data set comprising of over 9,000 hours (equates to over a year of continuous listening!) of underwater recordings. These recordings are being increasingly called upon to assess the changing soundscape of the west coast marine environment.
HELP MONITOR THE MARINE SOUNDSCAPE
We need you to help monitor the marine soundscape off Scotland’s west coast! Join our research vessel for a unique experience; be trained in how to detect different whale voices and human noises and gather vital acoustic data. Each field season we welcome on board passionate and enthusiastic members of the public to help gather acoustic and visual data, while exploring the Hebridean seas. No experience is required as full training is provided by our fantastic crew during the live-aboard expeditions.