In 1997, a sound was recorded by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Three separate hydrophones 5,000 miles apart picked up the super-low frequency "bloop", that ran for one minute and was never heard again. It was massive and, until 2012, unexplained. Eventually, scientists figured out that titanic shards of ice calving off shelves in Antarctica were responsible for the strange noise, but that knowledge does little to dispel the eerie feeling of otherness that emanates from the sound recording that's found easily online. Water does strange things to sound. It bends it, stretches it, fractures it, dulls it, swallows it and to us it becomes an alien simulacrum of the thing we land-dwellers experience. To enjoy Aquasonic, the latest innovative endeavour from Danish troupe Between Music, you had to first throw away conventional ideas of what a song could be. It also helped to appreciate the strange dynamics of water. It was mesmerising, hypnotic and beautiful. It was also undeniably weird.
The group were suspended in large tanks surrounded by steampunk instruments of metal and wire. Their elegant costumes floated around them while they struck their various instruments and sang. The level of detail the mics could pick up was amazing. Robert Karlsson, their Innovation Director, sat cross-legged playing a violin. The water created a microlayer between catgut and string, and the notes were crudely textured as a result. The rest of the group gathered around, and the set was comprised of a strange and sombre aquatic folk music. Everything turned and changed slowly. There was a crystallophone that created a high-pitched humming voice of its own and thundering gongs drove each piece inexorably forward. Two of the troupe sang, out of water, into the water and in the water, creating different tones each time. A silken mist of rain descended from the ceiling and shimmering reflections were cast onto the walls of the silent auditorium.
It was not to everyone's taste. Some walked out; the pace and outright strangeness too much. For the rest of us, however, it was a completely unique experience that rewarded our inquisitive nature and fired our imagination. One child was heard remarking, "Where are their tails?" Where indeed.
