Arctic Sound Walk

Original version

BBC Radio 3 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced Third Programme.

BBC Radio 3

Radio 3

Slow Radio

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media: Arts

Disengage from the frenzied pace of modern life with this diverse selection of programmes. Tune in, drop out. It's time to go slow.

Slow Radio: Arctic Sound Walk: Freezing and Finding

Freezing and Finding

BBC Radio 3 - Slow Radio, Arctic Sound Walk, Freezing and Finding

Horatio Clare's immersive Slow Radio Sound Walk along Greenland's Arctic Circle Trail.

Horatio Clare's immersive Slow Radio Sound Walk on Greenland's Arctic Circle Trail. Bringing to life the stark beauty of the Arctic tundra and exploring how Greenland came to be.

With a rich, varied and immersive listening experience, in the latest of his Slow Radio Sound Walks, as the winter draws and the snows threaten, Horatio Clare follows Greenland’s Arctic Circle Trail from the west coast of the country towards the vast ice-sheet. In a series of alien worlds, the scapes are changing all the time. The light, shapes and colours, the skies, waters and prospects are limitless. 

Recorded in October when the tundra still has life, but the season changes, staying overnight in fishermen’s shacks overlooking fjords, Horatio Clare brings to life the harsh and scenic beauty of one of the classic walks of the world. 

Remote, historic, silent, yet full of wildlife, on the first day of the three-day trek he’s joined by three stray huskies. The birdlife is out in force with snow buntings, displaying ravens and skeins of migrating geese. He crosses frozen mountain streams, high hanging valleys, tundra, bogs and natural amphitheatres. The hues are otherworldly with moon dust coloured lichen, burnt umbers, bronzed brass and dulled vermilions of endless reefs of moss. The atmospheres are all suspended under the fine pale blue and pearly white skies.  

Specialist location sound recordings capture the zephyrs of wind, wing beats of birds in the sky above, the trickling water of streams and the effort of a challenging hike across the stunningly beautiful and remote Arctic tundra.  

This first programme of three explores how Greenland came to be, from the early lives of the Inuit to the explorers and settlers in the early twentieth century.

Music accompanying the trek includes works by Peter Gregson, John Luther Adams, Einojuhani Rautavaara, Vikingur Olaffson, John Harle, Morton Feldman, Arvo Part, and the ice music of Terje Isungset.

Slow Radio: Arctic Sound Walk

Live music and the arts: broadcasts more live music than any other radio network. Classical music is its core. Genres include world and new music, jazz, speech and drama.

Horatio Clare's immersive Slow Radio Sound Walk on Greenland's Arctic Circle Trail.

Horatio Clare's immersive Slow Radio Sound Walk on Greenland's Arctic Circle Trail. Bringing to life the stark beauty of the Arctic tundra, exploring how Greenland came to be.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Slow Radio

Arctic Sound Walk

Freezing and Finding

Genres

Brand

Series

BBC Radio 3

About BBC Radio 3