Under the Ice
Listening to a frozen lake breathe in real time — a hydrophone on the lake bed under the winter ice, streaming continuously and archiving everything in 32-bit for later analysis and composition.
This project is an ongoing experiment in listening to a frozen lake as a living instrument. A hydrophone was delployed 60 feet and cabled back to the shore where it is connected to a 32-bit recorder and a shore-side streaming node powered by a solar panel and a battery pack.
The aim is to capture ultra-dynamic sounds — from near-silent micro-groans to explosive fractures in the ice sheet — while preserving a high-quality archive for both research and musical use.
Live under-ice stream
Ice Hydrophone – Live Stream
Note: This is a live stream in a very harsh environment. The stream may experince occasional dropouts or glitches.
Curated Highlights
Short, curated excerpts capturing thermal shifts, strange resonances, and subtle textures from the continuous stream.
Thermal groans at dawn
0.0 min
Slow, rising groans as the ice sheet responds to a sharp pre-sunrise temperature swing.
Ricochet crack across the bay
1.0 min
A fracture event that starts nearby and echoes outward in a ping-pong of resonant modes.
Distant snowmobile through the ice
1.0 min
A distant engine tone filtered by hundreds of meters of ice and water, warbling as the vehicle crosses pressure ridges.
Sleep & ambience
Longer, carefully curated under-ice pieces with slow dynamics and no sudden loud transients, intended for deep focus or sleep.
These tracks are manually reviewed end-to-end for gentle dynamics.
Soft groans under falling snow
8hr 45min sleep-safe
Gentle, low-level creaks and distant shifts under a blanket of fresh snow — curated for sleep.
Rig at a glance
- Hydrophone: Cetacean Research custom phantom powered CRT-40P
- Recorder: Zoom F3 (32-bit float audio recorder)
- Interface: MOTU M2 audio interface into Raspberry Pi running DarkIce
- Power: Solar + LiFePO₄ battery pack
- Network: Wi-Fi bridge back to the main network