Listen to Earth’s rumbling, secret soundtrack

Artist Brian House has released 'Everyday Infrasound in an Uncertain World,' an album that makes audible the Earth's hidden, sub-20Hz soundscape—frequencies below human hearing that travel globally from events like calving glaciers, wildfires, and distant storms. Using three custom 'macrophones' (tubes funneling air to a high-speed barometer capturing 100 readings per second) deployed in western Massachusetts, House recorded 24 hours of these infrasonic rumbles. With scientific guidance from University of Oregon volcanologist Leif Karlstrom—who uses similar infrasound techniques to study volcanoes like Kilauea—House then sped the recordings up 60-fold, compressing a day's data into 24 minutes of audible, ambient music that alternates between low grumbles and ghostly whispers.

The project bridges art and science, highlighting how infrasound monitoring has practical applications from detecting nuclear tests (via global sensor networks) to studying volcanic eruptions, as demonstrated when barometers picked up Krakatoa's 1883 blast from London. While specific sound sources remain mysterious—a high whistle could be a train, a deep rattle a distant thunderstorm—the album makes tangible a layer of planetary perception previously inaccessible. For professionals, it demonstrates how raw scientific data (air pressure variations) can be transformed into engaging media, while reminding us that advanced sensor technology captures far more of our world's activity than we directly experience.