Hark | Interlude 1 | Isen Låter Så

The planet is filled with unexpected and magical sounds… all you have to do is listen.

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Episode Transcript

Amy Martin: This is one of the most magical (00:05):
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Amy Martin: sounds ever heard. (00:06):
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Amy Martin: I didn't know that the planet (00:10):
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Amy Martin: could make this sound. (00:11):
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Amy Martin: It's utterly surreal and (00:15):
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Amy Martin: totally beautiful. (00:16):
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Amy Martin: I'm standing next to a large (00:22):
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Amy Martin: heart shaped lake in northern (00:24):
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Amy Martin: Sweden. (00:26):
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Amy Martin: It's late October. (00:27):
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Amy Martin: Light is getting scarce. (00:28):
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Amy Martin: Temperatures have been dropping (00:30):
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Amy Martin: and the ice has been growing. (00:32):
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Amy Martin: Slowly transforming this (00:35):
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Amy Martin: lake into a giant (00:36):
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Amy Martin: drum. (00:38):
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Amy Martin: All of this sound is just (00:42):
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Amy Martin: echoing from it. (00:44):
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Amy Martin: There's this thin layer of ice (00:50):
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Amy Martin: and the sun's hitting it. (00:52):
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Amy Martin: And there's (00:53):
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Amy Martin: nothing moving, nothing is (00:55):
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Amy Martin: doing that. It's making that (00:56):
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Amy Martin: sound itself. (00:58):
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Amy Martin: Instead of sticks or mallets. (01:05):
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Amy Martin: This drum is played by rays (01:08):
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Amy Martin: of sunlight, warming (01:10):
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Amy Martin: the ice ever so slightly, (01:11):
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Amy Martin: making the glassy surface hum (01:14):
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Amy Martin: and howl as it flexes (01:16):
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Amy Martin: and bends and (01:18):
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Amy Martin: sometimes suddenly cracks. (01:19):
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Amy Martin: In between some of our episodes (01:28):
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Amy Martin: this season, we're going to (01:30):
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Amy Martin: release these short interludes, (01:32):
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Amy Martin: little listening adventures (01:34):
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Amy Martin: like this encounter with a (01:36):
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Amy Martin: singing lake. (01:37):
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Amy Martin: I didn't go looking for this (01:47):
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Amy Martin: experience. (01:48):
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Amy Martin: My partner and I pulled up to (01:50):
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Amy Martin: his family's cabin for a get (01:51):
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Amy Martin: together, and as soon as (01:53):
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Amy Martin: I opened the door, I heard (01:54):
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Amy Martin: this ghostly sound (01:56):
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Amy Martin: and I moved toward it like (01:58):
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Amy Martin: a moth drawn to a flame. (02:00):
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Amy Martin: For people who've grown up (02:06):
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Amy Martin: around lakes that freeze every (02:07):
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Amy Martin: winter, this sound (02:08):
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Amy Martin: might be interesting, (02:10):
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Amy Martin: but not unexpected. (02:12):
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Amy Martin: I'm not one of those people. (02:15):
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Amy Martin: I was mesmerized. (02:17):
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Amy Martin: It was completely unlike (02:18):
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Amy Martin: anything I'd ever heard (02:20):
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Amy Martin: produced in nature before. (02:22):
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Amy Martin: Part of what made it so magical (02:36):
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Amy Martin: was how still everything was. (02:38):
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Amy Martin: Nothing appeared to be moving. (02:40):
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Amy Martin: It was just the same ice (02:42):
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Amy Martin: covered lake I'd seen and (02:44):
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Amy Martin: skied on before. (02:46):
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Amy Martin: Except it was singing. (02:48):
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Amy Martin: It was like the lake had a (02:50):
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Amy Martin: hidden talent that it had (02:51):
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Amy Martin: just decided to reveal. (02:53):
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Amy Martin: My nephew Walter thought it was (03:02):
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Amy Martin: pretty cool, too. (03:03):
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Amy Martin: He was three at the time and he (03:05):
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Amy Martin: came down to the lake shore to (03:07):
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Amy Martin: listen with me while I was (03:08):
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Amy Martin: recording. (03:09):
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Amy Martin: We stood there together in the (03:11):
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Amy Martin: pale afternoon light, (03:12):
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Amy Martin: wide eyed and breathless. (03:14):
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Walter: Isen låter så! (03:18):
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Amy Martin: The ice sounds like that, he (03:21):
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Amy Martin: says. (03:22):
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Walter: Popcorn! Poppade popcorn i isen! (03:24):
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Amy Martin: Popcorn is popping in the ice. (03:29):
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Walter: De låter så mycket. De skriker. De är ledsen. De är ledsen. (03:34):
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Amy Martin: They're singing so much, he (03:43):
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Amy Martin: says. (03:44):
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Amy Martin: They're shouting. (03:45):
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Amy Martin: They're sad. (03:47):
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Amy Martin: I (03:53):
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Amy Martin: love how the ice went from (03:57):
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Amy Martin: an it to a they for (03:58):
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Amy Martin: Walter. (04:00):
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Amy Martin: How listening to the lake (04:01):
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Amy Martin: turned it into a being for him. (04:03):
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Amy Martin: Something animate. (04:06):
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Amy Martin: Our planet is 4.5 billion (04:13):
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Amy Martin: years old. (04:16):
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Amy Martin: And in our first episode, (04:17):
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Amy Martin: I talked about how for most (04:19):
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Amy Martin: of that time there were no (04:21):
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Amy Martin: living things capable of making (04:22):
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Amy Martin: or receiving a sound. (04:25):
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Amy Martin: But there are some big (04:27):
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Amy Martin: assumptions baked into that (04:28):
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Amy Martin: framework, (04:30):
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Amy Martin: like what a living thing (04:31):
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Amy Martin: even is. (04:33):
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Amy Martin: In fact, the whole concept (04:35):
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Amy Martin: of dividing the world into (04:36):
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Amy Martin: living and non-living stuff, (04:38):
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Amy Martin: that's just one paradigm. (04:40):
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Amy Martin: There are other ways to think (04:45):
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Amy Martin: about these things. (04:46):
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Amy Martin: So what do you consider (04:50):
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Amy Martin: to be alive? (04:51):
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Amy Martin: I'm guessing animals are an (04:53):
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Amy Martin: easy yes and plants. (04:55):
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Amy Martin: Probably fungi, microbes. (04:57):
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Amy Martin: What about the rocks those (05:01):
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Amy Martin: microbes make? (05:02):
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Amy Martin: Or soil. (05:04):
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Amy Martin: What about a river (05:06):
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Amy Martin: or a lake? (05:08):
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Amy Martin: To be alive on this planet, (05:16):
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Amy Martin: do you have to be an organism? (05:18):
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Amy Martin: An individual? (05:20):
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Amy Martin: Long before humans or (05:28):
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Amy Martin: any other creatures evolved, (05:30):
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Amy Martin: long before anything on earth (05:32):
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Amy Martin: had a mouth or an ear, (05:34):
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Amy Martin: countless lakes came (05:36):
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Amy Martin: and went. (05:38):
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Amy Martin: Freezing and melting and (05:39):
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Amy Martin: freezing again. (05:41):
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Amy Martin: And whether or not we consider (05:45):
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Amy Martin: them to be alive, they (05:47):
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Amy Martin: just keep singing. (05:49):
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