Once more, Ross seal

Jan 14, 2023, 10:57 AM

"The sound of the Ross seal is quite unusual, it's almost like a synthesizer in itself, so I knew I wanted to incorporate some electronic sounds in some way. The sound comes in waves, or 'whooshes', so I had it ever-present in my piece, doing its own thing, with only very minor compression, EQ and reverb.

"I wanted to start with something quite minimal, and perhaps a little mysterious, given that this seal is not sighted often and lives only in Antarctica - a place where there is so much mystery. My idea or thought pattern was to start minimal, build and then return to minimal, as if you are on a journey in the Antarctic - seeing nothing for miles in endless white and then suddenly spotting a Ross Seal, only for it to disappear again into the cold ether.
 
"After building the piece with some synth tracks and guitars, I added some processed drums, strings, bass and more synths and guitar to build to a peak around the guitar line, and then for everything to fade away, with the original sound of the seal remaining constant throughout the piece."

Ross seal reimagined by Adrian Williams.

Part of the Polar Sounds project, a collaboration between Cities and Memory, the Helmholtz Institute for Functional Marine Biodiversity (HIFMB) and the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI). Explore the project in full at http://citiesandmemory.com/polar-sounds

IMAGE: Hannes Grobe, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons