Skipton cellist visits Arctic to record sounds of climate change

BBC News

5 hours ago

The sound of Arctic wind howling through the strings of Sarah Smout's carbon fibre cello on the pack ice connected to the North Pole is like nothing she has heard before.She joined a group of artists from all over the world on a trip to research and be inspired by the "breathtaking and absolutely vast" landscape of the Arctic Circle.The musician and poet spent 16 days on board a specially-equipped ship in the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard and experienced temperatures of -15C.She said she saw climate change happening before her eyes as "cracks began to form on the ice, a large shelf broke off and we were hurried back onto the boat, no longer safe on the drifting piece of ice".
Smout is using music, words and sound recordings to make her debut album, which will focus on climate change in the Arctic."Music is a brilliant way to bring people together, speak to their hearts and minds and inspire them to make decisions themselves to bring about positive change," said Smout."We are witness to the climate changing all around us, but none so dramatic and fast as in the Arctic."It might be far away but what happens there affects all of us."She said visiting Svalbard had made her more driven than ever to bring the sounds she has recorded to the wider public.She hopes listeners will connect to what is happening in that part of the world and be encouraged to protect it.Smout said her current research was about water and that she and her cello, which she has named Bernard, had been on many adventurers to explore nature."I've always been fascinated by the Arctic and I think being in places and getting a sense of the place first hand sparks my own creativity," she said.Smout used a hydrophone to record under water and said the sounds she had collected, such as creaking glaciers, would speak for themselves on her album.
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