Abigail Sanders is a musician from the UK, based in Berlin and studying for an M.A at the Interdisciplinary Music Research Programme of Nuremberg University of Music, with a focus on Human-Animal Studies. In her artistic research project “Sounding Whales”, Abigail learns to play humpback whale songs on the french horn by listening to hydrophone recordings, transcribing what she hears and performing them as accurately as she can.
On board Godzilla Abigail will try to call the whales by playing her whale songs out into the sea, and seeing if it produces an answer. Humpback whales rarely are sighted in the Baltic Sea due to its geography, but it does sometimes, very rarely happen. If her sounds do encourage the answer of a cetacean, it will be a miraculous event. Abigail will also bring hydrophones and listen to the waters as inspiration for her work.
“I grew up in Hastings very near to the English Channel which connects to the North Sea, neighbouring the Baltic. I have always been enchanted with the ocean and the beings that inhabit it, and when I hear seagulls and smell salt water I feel at home. Since moving to Berlin I have made some short trips to the coastlines of Germany and Poland but other than that I am not so familiar with the Baltic Sea. I’m looking forward to getting to know what is now my nearest ocean, which holds new significance.”
https://soundingwhales.bandcamp.com/album/sounding-whales-volume-