Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Using specially designed instruments, Danish group Aquasonic is the first ensemble to perform music underwater and does so without using breathing apparatuses.
Photo credit: Charlotta de Miranda
Instead of using SCUBA equipment, members must frequently resurface to breathe. The performers and their equipment start submerged in water-filled tanks equipped with hydrophones. Hydrophones are specially-built microphones that are used to pick up the band’s haunting concertos even while underwater.
The microphones aren’t the only specially-made equipment the band uses. They’ve also developed their own subaqueous instruments, including an underwater organ known as a hydraulophone, a crystallophone, a rotacorda, as well as a modified violin.
It took the band years to perfect the technology they use to perform underwater, conducting countless experiments with deep sea-divers. Learning to sing underwater was a whole other challenge. Lead singer Laila Skovmand has to produce vocals that lead the music all while rationing air was particularly difficult.
A hybrid of music, live performance, visual arts, and new technology, the group masters a huge range of aesthetics, skills, and genres. By fluctuating in between all of these artistic disciplines, they’ve created a truly unbelievable experience.
From conga-dancing dogs and bicycling ballerinas, to hair-raising feats of strength and death-defying motorcycle stunts, Ripley’s Believe It or Not! A Century of Strange! is sure to delight readers of all ages. With over 1,200 weird-but-true stories from around the world and 256 pages of wild and wonderful photography, this year’s collection of all things odd is not-to-be-missed.
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