Composer and Irish World Academy faculty Dr. Óscar Mascareñas releases a new sound work, 'Deep Blanco'

Deep Blanco, a new sound work by composer and Irish World Academy faculty Dr. Óscar Mascareñas, was released on Monday the 6th of February as part of Polar Sounds, an inter-disciplinary collaboration between Cities and Memory (http://citiesandmemory.com/polar-sounds), the Helmholtz Institute for Functional Marine Biodiversity(HIFMB) and the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI). The work includes Gamelan performed by Cathy Purcell, a graduate of the MA Composition and Creative Music Practice. Listen to Deep Blanco here: https://audioboom.com/posts/8229985-deep-blanco

Deep Blanco uses sounds from a recording of Ross seals that was captured at the PALAOA observatory 71°S 008°W (-70.516667 8.216667) (PerenniAL Acoustic Observatory in the Antarctic Ocean is AWI’s listening station north of the German Antarctic Neumayer station). By creating a sonic eco-system (seals, Gamelan and electronics), Deep Blanco offers a new perspective from which to understand and interpret the seals’ sounds; a perspective that, although different in nature, is essentially and purposely not dissimilar to that offered by science. Through the gathering of scientific and artistic interpretations, and the dialogue between them, we can gain new insights about these creatures, and at the same time generate awareness of their existence and the need to protect and preserve them together with the other extraordinary beings of the oceans.