The world's first hit composed by a fjord!
The song is called "The blue unknown" and is completely based on hardcore measurements of the seabed between Horten and Moss.
These measurements were made by Kongsberg Discovery. Right on the water's edge in the inner harbor of Horten, they produce world-leading underwater technology. Once we have this technology, it's too tempting not to use it to really give the Oslofjord a voice.
But can a hit song help save the Oslo Fjord? We believe so. As soon as the song is released on Spotify, every single play will contribute money to cleaning the fjord. All monies go. You can contribute. In fact, every time you listen to the song.
Music moves and speaks to us in a different way than numbers, money and plans.
We want to celebrate our fjord. The one that gives us sea views in almost every home, natural salt spray in our hair and which is fertile ground for our innovative business community.
How do you actually create the world's first hit composed by a fjord?
We have asked ourselves that a number of times in this process too, we can promise. The idea itself came when, in a completely different context, we saw measurement data of the seabed in the form of graphs and thought; "hmmm... That reminds me of music!" which in turn led to the question; is it possible to actually hear the Oslofjord? Can one manage to transform this visual data into something auditory? Translate it.
But who on earth do you ask? Yes, Bendik Baksaas. A very talented (and nice) composer. And don't you think he's originally from Horten? With a lot of energy and curiosity, he literally dove into the information he received from Kongsberg Discovery. Kongsberg Discovery is a world leader in seabed mapping and what Bendik got to work with was measurement data of the seabed between Horten and Moss.
Horten is tech, but also culture, and in this project we merge them.
Jørgen Kvernøy Døhlie at Kongsberg Discovery tells a little about how their technology works. How they can make measurements.
When we humans see, we use light, and who hasn't noticed how short we can see underwater depending on how murky the water is. When we need to find the seabed, we use sound. With sound, we manage to reach the world's deepest ocean, and if there's one thing we're good at in Horten, it's using sound in products in space, seeing underwater, and deep into the heart.
To see underwater, we use sonars and echo sounders. The sound is sent out with the help of a transducer, called a swanger in Norwegian, which vibrates at a given frequency. The transducer vibrates by applying a voltage, and this voltage is controlled from a computer. The range of the sound signal is determined by the frequency at which the transducer vibrates. To reach the deepest oceans, we transmit at 12 kHz, and in shallower water we transmit at around 400 kHz. Low frequencies reach deep - think about how far bass sounds carry at a concert. Here in Horten, we also make sonars that see under the seabed, and then we have to go even further down in frequency, just like with a bass. For the sound from water to be used in music, the sound has to go down into an audible frequency range (20 - 20 kHz). Then we "pitch" the sound signal down so that the tone becomes deeper.
When we have sent the sound into the water, we will find out how deep it is. At school we have all learned that distance is equal to speed times time. Who has not seen lightning and started counting the seconds until we hear thunder? In air, sound takes about three seconds to travel one kilometer (344 m/s), and we can then calculate how far away the lightning was. Underwater we use the same principle where sound travels about 1500 m/s. Underwater we also have a challenge where the ocean volume can consist of different viscosities that will affect how the sound bends. It is the same phenomenon as when we see an object from an angle on the seabed when we are swimming.
Just like when we count the seconds until we hear thunder, we time the time when the seabed reflects the sound signal we sent out. The reflected sound signal causes a transducer to vibrate, this vibration is made into a voltage, the voltage is converted from analog to digital and then we can process the information on a computer. We then know how long the sound has been in the water, and we can also measure how strong the reflected sound signal was in decibels. This allows us to distinguish between hard and soft bottom. To find out how deep it is, we multiply the time by the speed of sound in water and divide it by two (remember that sound travels back and forth).
The sound signal we emit can be compared to a flashlight illuminating the seabed. The beam we emit illuminates an area where the strongest reflection is in the middle. When we emit a beam, we call it a singlebeam. Creating maps with just one beam would take a long time, and fortunately we have multibeam echosounders. Then we have many flashlights (transducer elements) that emit the beam in a fan with a certain overlap. The reflected sound signal is also received on several transducer elements, and we can then calculate where the seabed is. In the sound we receive, we also get information about the content of the ocean volume, which we call the water column.
After receiving information about depths and reflectivity, we can draw a picture of the water column, and we can see what is in the water volume and see the seabed.
This technology is used to measure the seabed, count fish (get into other things ocean measurement is used for, why it is useful for the world and sustainability) and now to make music.
