A group of Siberian percussionists have discovered the coolest instrument in the world: frozen lake ice.
The musicians noticed quite by accident that the one-meter thick (3.3 feet) ice on Lake Baikal, the deepest lake in the world, produces a rich, distinctive sound, according to a report in the Siberian Times.
“I felt like we were playing on the drums that nature has left out for us, alone under the sun on the frozen waters of the world’s most magnificent lake,” said Natalya Vlasevskaya, 31, an architect from Irkutsk and leader of the Etnobit percussion group.
One of the drummers made the discovery when his wife fell on the ice and landed with a musical boom. They played around with the sounds and recorded it on a phone to bring back to the rest of the group. Vlasevskaya was immediately interested and the group of four drummers decided to make the six-hour drive to find the exact same spot of ice. Other places on the lake don’t make the same melodies because the water is much deeper.
They played around with a camera rolling and the result is a video that has gone viral allowing the world to hear one of nature’s most wondrous musical gifts.
The group is comprised of: Vlasevskaya and husband Alexei Vlasevskiy, 34; Efim Viktorov, 21; Tatiana Epifantseva, 41; and Anna Isaikina 25.
