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