Seal Sounds from Encounters at the End of the World

The out-of-this-world sounds made by waddell seals in Antartica from the movie "Encounters at the End of the World" by Werner Herzog.

[@Artesian_mirage]

New Aphex Twin album sounds great

[@MemoryOfTheRose]

I appreciate you

[@patronsaintofpoison]

It's more ambient than I would have liked You cannot dance to this

[@GEOSynths]

I've spent thousands on Synths to make sounds like that...and all along I just needed to plug a Seal in!...phew!

[@Wingless117]

Most underrated comment of the last decade.

[@Petee92HTID]

Definitely gonna sample this into my Polyend Tracker!

[@drstevie]

The best film i have seen.

[@buchsdrn]

OMG I just watched this on tv, it's so "other-worldly" to hear those sounds and to think that they come from seals is just so amazing!!!

[@corkskrewclubhouse93]

Sounds like a Moog synthesizer.

[@corncobjohnsonreal]

corkskrewclubhouse93 fuck you

[@brianm2881]

New instrument : Tank full of seals, a couple of underwater high frequency mics , with a keyboard attached that releases seal sex pheromones when different keys are pressed. I call it the Seasealsexsmellsynth.

[@higamoshogamos4148]

did this ever go into production?

[@kactapuzzle]

can't handle this. MIND. BLOWN.

[@staphinfection]

Best part of the film! Such a great documentary from an amazing director!

[@XerxesTexasToast]

Water does fucking amazing things to sound waves.

[@tanzteemachtlustig]

A few years ago there was a livestream out of the ice from neumeyer station. I‘m so sad it disappeared and. no recordings available

[@wolfy167]

My cat is going nuts trying to figure out where the sound is coming from.

[@schwerttau]

great bit, great doc

[@benjidrake]

Wikipedia reckons "The sound recordings of the seals were produced by Douglas Quin, a renown Sound expert and professor at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, another recipient of the Antarctic Artists and Writers grant.[3]" I don't mind if the seal sounds are artificial, the shot of the entranced scientists with their ears to the ice is poignant enough for me.

[@saffofontana2044]

poetic and beautiful the whole movie

[@danieltutschek1911]

THX so much

[@jetjaguar3000]

Another good search to put into google is "quin austral soundscapes", if you're interested in acoustics and so on. Doug Quin, who recorded these sounds, talks about his experience in Antarctica.

[@Therizin0]

Definitely...it's good to see more mainstream recognition...too bad he didn't win his category, but maybe someday

[@Therizin0]

still damn enjoyable and fascinating stuff...it's still a movie

[@orbik_fin]

Are those sounds recorded with underwater mics beneath the ice or through it with mics placed on top? If the latter, I'd imagine the dispersion of sound waves travelling in ice is responsible for a lot of the "synthiness" in those calls... pretty much any sound coming from below would be transformed into fast "zap" glissandi.

[@robofabi]

I like to play this video together with another video... starting at 1:30 min at the same time as Space Music Improvisation by gabriellehto....It sounds amazing...synthy wonderous space music and seal sounds!

[@aquaknot]

That seal be beat-boxin'!

[@mojo5157]

My cat is just sitting there ignoring it. :D Cool sounds!

[@nebula32]

pure music

[@hogo1]

@ProfessorLerxstDirk she is putting what your about the hear in context, if you didn't know what those sounds were would you think they are seals? jeeze

[@jetjaguar3000]

These do sound very much like synths, and I was really skeptical too, but turns out you're wrong tekkentool. Go find the Macaulay Library website and search Weddell Seal there. Many examples of recordings done by scientists, going back as early as 1964.

[@campz1992]

woooooooowwwww

[@dontLEAVEmePLS]

Seals are like DJ's on the sea... can i bring them home ..? xD

[@Therizin0]

Haha, that's awesome...but those are pretty old. His more recent ones seem like he's gotten better at capturing the things he's going for in his movies. These people all actually live these lives there, and have their own stories. The reality Herzog goes for is usually crazier than most of what you could come up with...and is presented in a way that speaks for itself.

[@Therizin0]

Hm...I just saw the Imagine interview with Herzog where he explains those fabrications. While that sort of embellishment deserves to be questioned (though not necessarily disclosed), I can understand his justification for it. The doors thing was absurd, but in the case of Encounters, I think many of the scientists would be more likely to stick to their own stories. In The White Diamond, he really did encounter those situations. He's still good at show the essential truth he's after.

[@MakinaDeMuerte]

@Phuckyooo I've been listening to dubstep since like late 2005... So... I think I have a pretty good idea of what dubstep is and what it sounds like.

[@arrivatatartaruga7740]

Im so jealous for your experience. I would feel so well there.

[@Therizin0]

The way he explained it, it sounded like the facilitation for how the truth is reached. Freud definitely did want things to be a certain way, and saw things as such....Herzog has a genuinely interesting cosmological viewpoint though, and shows it from many angles...Seal sounds, waterfall caves, penguin derangement. He definitely directs his documentaries, more than presents cases, but take Van Gogh...he saw things in such a way, and we enjoy it because it's not photo-reality, but can be truer

[@maguxzs]

sounds from another world

[@tobesters]

Interesting stuf!

[@wesgriff1]

I heard these scientists got frost bite on their ears from doing this.

[@lepistanuda]

Anybody know how this was recorded? interested in how the recordings may have been coloured by the technology used

[@immortelle.]

Seal Floyd has entered the chat

[@JoelTGM]

perfect for techno banger yahh

[@hogo1]

@ArvonLisaVero no, its from a hydrophone

[@DrWurm]

This reminds me of The Big Lebowski when The Dude is in the bathtub listening to "Songs of the Whale."

[@JogaLuce]

especially after you put the electronics in the water with the Seals. OH, you meant sounds warmer in a different way? ^_^

[@Dzzo222]

This inspired me to write a screenplay

[@Therizin0]

What has he made up?

[@garrettsheridan]

There is no truth. There is only perception.

[@ProfessorLerxstDirk]

Sounded pretty cool after that chick stopped yapping, what the hell was her problem.

[@Phuckyooo]

@MakinaDeMuerte Really? I dont hear any bass. Just because it sounds like electro music, or a synthesizer doesnt mean it sounds like dubstep.

[@wowthungsten]

Analog sounds warmer anyway.

[@emoraz]

Could be interesting: A seal on the stage instead a VCS3. Now the problem: find a seal and convince the noble animal to sing along on a gig...

[@MakinaDeMuerte]

Seal sounds, the original dubstep.

[@sorinash95]

made me lol so hard

[@colamonstrosity]

somebody should make an electro mix to those sounds.

[@glenclosed]

Do that, Liar Bird !!

[@nokash80]

Piękne. Jak z muzyki JMJ :)

[@iluvspurple]

reminds me of teletubies

[@PruittJohnny]

Sealed 144,000

[@taranakinz]

DARKSIDED! THEY'RE DARKSIDED!

[@JamesKislingbury]

Hey you, out there on the ice, can you hear me? Waiting for someone to call out would you film me?

[@Therizin0]

As far as the integrity, I think he's responsible with the means he takes to get to the points, but it's definitely not a good habit for a documentarian. It's tricky gray area, but think his films achieve the point he's trying to make, and does it iwonderous and inventive ways, and you just gotta accept it at that.

[@ElseeKay]

have someone jump to 1:30 out of context

[@Phuckyooo]

@MakinaDeMuerte You obviously have no idea what dubstep is

[@denfilade]

d-d-d-d-d-d-drop the bass

[@gothpd]

...???

[@Dlavernia]

Haha, yeah.

[@xmoonXcricketx]

The origin of techno?

[@jenlivernois]

Are those fur-trimmed collars? That kind defeats the purpose.

[@MrChiliaison]

If you don't hear any bass, borrow some earwax from the Hopi, check out the definition of "dub" and hush!!!

[@mannyfit75]

They look like red human seals.

[@frutt8]

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@him3zz]

lololol I wrote that 8 months ago and just now I looked at it and I made me laugh too lolol!

[@MakinaDeMuerte]

@Phuckyooo Well it's not my fault your speakers suck... And no it doesn't but I don't hear many other electronic music genres use the booms, clicks, and crescendos that are prevalent in dubstep.

[@dookie3k]

APHEX TWIN SEALS!

[@gerstube1]

@magikroom giggity

[@MakinaDeMuerte]

@ProfessorLerxstDirk 2 old dudes to talk to... isolation... she's probably messed up and has a lot of problems.

[@him3zz]

It's a spaceship sending signals from underneath Earth. The illumanti came to my house and told me. I'm special.

[@nierika64]

@dookie3k SKRILLEX SON!!!

[@JonathanXLindqviust]

It's funny how Werner himself admit that the scientist listening to the ice is a complete fake/false premise and just a stunt. The sounds are real though, but you can't hear them through the ice.

[@DarkAngelEU]

Why would he lie? There's nothing to gain.

[@dfghj241]

yes there is, look at the scenes he managed to accomplish with this lie, and the notion of these human beings wondering in a alien planet that you would not be able to get had not the lie been accepted.

[@DarkAngelEU]

But it's not a lie, it's called editing.

[@dfghj241]

well its not only editing, if it is a lie that the scientists can listen to these seal sounds through the ice, then the scene where the three scientists lean into the ground to better listen these sounds owes its composition and its brilliance to our acceptance of that lie. although i don't know if this fact is really a lie or not.

[@DarkAngelEU]

Lmao you're confusing yourself, it's not a lie as it's obviously stated that they can only hear the sounds with the aid of technology. That the scientists lean on the ice to create a scene that goes along with the sounds isn't a lie, it's simply them creating a visual metaphor for what they are doing with technology. If you think poetry is lying then art is one giant farce.