Noise Variations: A Journey in Search of the Whispers of Glaciers

Come with us to the High Arctic, where we follow two friends, Clovis (a sound artist), and Ugo (a polar researcher), teaming up to capture the sounds of glaciers. Clovis leaves his Italian home to join Ugo at the Ny Ålesund base in Svalbard. In the northernmost community, Ugo and his team study Arctic glacier stability by placing microphones beneath 350 meters of ice and investigating the vibrations of glaciers. Back from the Arctic in summer 2022, two musicians joined us to interpret these sounds, offering access to the imaginative worlds they can create.

Our project is non-fictional and takes a hybrid form, combining elements of an audio-documentary and a music album. We aim to listen to the daily life of scientists, to what the glaciers are saying, and share their voice beyond the polar worlds. Doing so, we raise the question of how to make people understand the reality of climate change and how the science behind it is obtained. We will present both the work behind this project and share with you audio pieces.

A preview of the project can be found here: https://soundcloud.com/ugonanni/song-of-glaciers-1