Artist Turns Earth's Hidden Rumbles Into Audible Music

The Earth is always talking, but we've never been able to hear most of what it says.

Every day, our planet generates a deep, constant hum at frequencies below 20 hertz. Glaciers cracking, wildfires crackling, ocean currents shifting, and storms surging all create "infrasound" that travels around the globe in massive waves. These sounds are too low for human ears, but they carry the acoustic fingerprints of our living world.

Artist and musician Brian House decided to give us access to this hidden layer of reality. Working from the quiet woods of western Massachusetts, he built three custom "macrophones" that funnel air into ultra-sensitive barometers taking readings 100 times per second. The result is "Everyday Infrasound in an Uncertain World," a 24-minute album condensing one full day of the planet's secret soundtrack.

House speeds up the recordings by 60 times so human ears can finally detect what's been rumbling beneath our perception all along. A high-pitched whistle might be a distant train. An intense low rattle could be a thunderstorm hundreds of miles away or shifting ocean currents. Nobody knows for sure, and that's part of the beauty.

Scientists have tracked infrasound for over a century. When the volcano Krakatoa erupted in the South Pacific in 1883, barometers detected its roar as far away as London. Today, a global network of infrasound sensors helps enforce nuclear test ban treaties by listening for secret explosions.

Volcanologist Leif Karlstrom from the University of Oregon, who uses infrasound to study Mount Kilauea in Hawaii, helped House set up his equipment. Karlstrom says House is "highlighting interesting phenomena," even though pinpointing the exact source of each rumble remains impossible.

Why This Inspires

House's project reminds us that reality extends far beyond what our senses naturally detect. The planet constantly communicates with itself through pressure waves that circle the globe, carrying news of distant events in a language we've only recently begun to decode.

The album itself alternates between ghostlike whispers and otherworldly vibrations. House embraces the mystery rather than trying to label every sound with scientific precision. He hopes listeners feel both unsettled and connected to something larger than their everyday experience.

This isn't just art for art's sake. By making the invisible audible, House bridges the gap between scientific measurement and human experience, turning raw data into something we can actually feel.

The Earth has been singing this song since long before humans existed, and it will continue long after we're gone.