The music is very cool, and so are the musicians. They perform in Antarctica, in one of the harshest climates on Earth. Performing has long been part of Antarcticans’ repertoire, but this year, the ephemeral southern music scene will have a digital afterlife.

Traditionally, the audience for the musicians on the Ross Sea side of the continent is select: the thousand or so people who visit the U.S. base at McMurdo during the austral summer and the neighbors at Scott Base, the Kiwi enclave in Antarctica.

But G.W. Krauss, the guy in charge of the beer this summer at McMurdo, thinks the music deserves a wider audience, so he’s been recording the icebound bands since October. “I was down two seasons ago and I really was impressed with the musicians who were down here, so I thought it would be cool to have a CD,” Krauss said.

Music is an integral part of the recreation offered at McMurdo, according to base recreation manager Bill Meyer. “My department has a budget of over $500,000. That includes the beer and soda as well. We have a wide, wide variety of activities for people. Music is just one of them.”

The musical equipment, at least when it arrives by ship from the United States, is top flight, Meyer says. “We get very nice microphones and sound systems down here. Unfortunately it doesn’t last very long. Things get really beat up getting down here and getting moved around so things are constantly being sent off the ice for repair or for retro (return) because it’s no longer working, so there’s a big turnover like that.”

Recording is a much more makeshift venture. Krauss brought his own recording equipment to the ice, and uses some base equipment along with borrowed gear.

“I can edit many tracks but I can only record two at a time,” he said. “So for any of the recordings I do in what I call the studio, but what is actually the band practice room in the beer warehouse, I use my computer to record two tracks. When it needs any more than two tracks it gets more complicated.”

Being in the Antarctic, Krauss has to improvise. When he only has one or two channels to record, he uses a Macintosh PowerBook G3 PDQ and Digidesign’s ProTools to record, then mixes using a Carvin mixer.

“For vocals and any other situation I need a mike for, I try to use Shure SM-58s, but sometimes I have to make do with scrounged up other unknown, old stuff,” Krauss says.

It’s when he needs to record more than two tracks at once that he turns into a juggler: He adds another Carvin mixer and a Yamaha Portastudio four-track tape recorder. He then feeds into two Sony MD Walkmen the signals from these second and third mixers and eventually edits them in ProTools along with the other tracks already recorded.

“This is all done in my spare time,” Krauss said. “The main goal of the project has been to have fun, and it has been successful so far.”

But if the funds roll in, Krauss knows what he will buy: “fancier editing equipment, a more advanced multitracking setup (ideally a ProTools system) and/or an industrial-type CD burner to be used for the next IceStock Project.”

Despite having to cobble the recording gear together, Krauss has been able to capture many of this summer’s McMurdo musical events. Acoustic nights are held every second week. Bands play in the base’s bars and an evening of women’s music is also held every year.

The annual highlight is IceStock, a six-hour outdoor concert that’s been held every New Year’s day since 1990. “The stage every year is built temporarily and it’s just two flatbeds from the back of tractor trailers next to each other, and that’s the stage,” Krauss said.

“On top of that they put part of an old military Jamesway — what used to be used in the MASH units, like in World War II and stuff,” Krauss said. “That provides a little bit of coverage from the side from the wind. There are big parachutes behind the stage to help block out the wind a little bit and also just to look cool.”

Meyer, whose job as recreation manager includes running IceStock, allocates half an hour to solo acts and 45 minutes to bands. “We try to mix up the acts between the solo acoustic stuff and maybe the rock and roll acts or the Celtic or folk music,” he said. “We always end on a high note with one of the dance bands.”

And even though it’s held in the middle of the Antarctic summer, it’s still a cold gig. Guitars fall out of tune a lot quicker because the temperature will contract the metal strings, and musicians spend a lot more time tuning than they normally would.

“The musicians generally are all dressed up in their extreme cold weather gear, and after playing for a while they often have to put their fingers round a hot water bottle to warm up a little bit,” Krauss said.

Meyer, who plays drums for one of the bands, toughed it out barefoot this year. “The pedals were kind of cold so I got a little frostbite on the balls of both my feet this year, which wasn’t the smartest thing I’ve ever done.”

Finding a band to join (groups such as The Shackletones or Penguins in Bondage are part of the Antarctic scene) is haphazard. “It’s just word of mouth,” Meyer said. “Everyone just kind of gravitates together, depending on what type of music they like to play. People work 10 hours a day, six days a week down here minimum — so on top of all that, then you get rehearsal times in there.

“You are really pressed for time. So it’s amazing that so much comes out of these bands as it does considering how busy we are.”

At this year’s IceStock, there was everything from a didgeridoo player to a band with an accordion and spoons. Krauss has also opted for studio versions of the music for his CD. “I try to get everybody I can to come and do the studio stuff with me,” Krauss said. At IceStock, “there are sounds from the wind, being outside. And the performers are cold. Some of them are drunk or hungover.”

Krauss has also been grabbing music from the other musical performances at the base. The eclectic CD will have that didgeridoo player, as well as experimental jazz, a soul band and even a recitation. Krauss is recording right up to the mid-February end of the summer season. “Ideally, I would end up with an hourlong disc,” he said.

After McMurdo hunkers down for the Antarctic winter later this month, Krauss expects to be able to finish most of the CD. “When the station closes there will be no airplanes or boats, nothing can come and go from the station,” he said.

But he’s set himself a deadline of April to get the music to those who’ve already contributed a $10 donation. “I’m going to e-mail the .wav files once the songs are mixed down back home and I’ve got a friend there (the United States) who has volunteered to burn the CDs and print the liner notes and send them out from there,” he said.

Krauss, an adventurer who wants to live on all seven of the world’s continents, is committed to local music. “A decent number of people, like probably three or four I’ll have on the disc, are bands that meet each other down here,” he said. “They exist for the short season, some times only for a few weeks, and then they never see each other again. They’re never going to be recorded. This is the only chance.”

By Kim Griggs 02.21.2001

Posted in WIRED