ANTARCTICA: MUSIC FROM THE ICE, Cheryl E Leonard

A participant in the National Science Foundation’s Antarctic Artists and Writers Program, Leonard lived and worked at Palmer Research Station for five weeks in 2009. At this remote outpost on the Antarctic Peninsula, the composer made pristine field recordings of ice, water, wind, and wildlife. During this time she also gathered (with the proper permits) rocks, shells, and penguin bones which she later fashioned into the penguin bone idiophones and sculptural percussion instruments featured on this album. These sound sources are woven together into eight carefully-crafted compositions that evoke the dynamic environments and ecosystems of the Antarctic Peninsula.

I bought this three years ago and apparently never made a note. Endlessly interesting – microtones, washes of sonics, crepitating percussion, alien ocean sounds, I find something new in it every time I listen.