These recordings broadly assume their structure from observed data and modelling predictions arising from studies of Pine Island Glacier as well as the Ronne-Filchner ice shelf and Weddell Sea in western Antarctica.

Everything is complex in Antarctica. Nothing is straightforward, and despite the great blank white page it seems to present to the observer it is filled with ever shifting shadow and nuance.

Partly on account of its remoteness and the extreme temperature and wind speeds, Antarctica is the most challenging place on Earth to conduct observational research. But we know enough to understand that the survival of this continent is a determining factor in the prognosis for our own survival.

Warm water intrusions may now likely be accelerating Antarctic ice loss with a consequential increase in global sea levels. Should the increasingly fragile ice shelf break away, it will be like a cork being taken from a bottle. The Antarctic ice sheet will quickly slide into open water. The collapse of Pine Island glacier alone is predicted to contribute to a 1.5 metre rise in global sea level.

All of these elements are implied in the behaviour of the overall system; the temperature of water, the concentration of salt, the rate of current flow, the wind and its ability to transport ice formed in polynyas (openings in the sea ice cover), the rise and fall of the thermocline; the depth at which cold, salt rich surface water meets warmer, deeper water. The thermocline plays a pivotal role in determining the future state of the Antarctic ice sheet.

The complex self regulation of the system forms natural barriers which turn away warmer currents and calve icebergs as part of the process of renewal and regeneration. But the predictability of the regulation is increasingly showing signs of stress. The common feeling among researchers is that there are significant tipping points approaching, defining moments that contain profound global consequences, and we simply cannot predict exactly when the crisis point will arise.

The impact of global warming is all the more acute in our polar territories. Since the 1950s, according to the British Antarctic Survey, Antarctica has lost 25,000km2 of ice shelf. IPCC reports, with high confidence, that both major ice sheets, Greenland and Antarctica, have been losing mass since 1990, with the highest loss rate occurring in the period 2010-2019. They are projected to continue to lose mass.

So that is the context for these recordings. As in previous work, my intention is not to create work that pointedly focuses on any particular aspect of impending crisis. Rather, it is my aim to allow the data to speak for itself. Listen to the relationship between the flow of data points.


Listen for the rush of salt, the steep ramping of the thermocline, the rush of deep water into the spaces underneath the ice shelf. Or the forming of ice in the dark surface of polynya, how it is scooped by ferocious winds to push the ice around, or how, when the wind stills, the ice thickens and begins to seal off the polynya, the ice factory.

For the most part it should be possible to discern a curious harmonic balance in these ambient chamber pieces. But where the readings break, or shift uncomfortably, the sound breaks too.

This is a faithful report in which the aesthetics of sound have steered the way. It is neither science nor sonification. These are works of data composition, and they seek to bear witness.