Okay, this could turn out to be a short thread… I’ve just watched the first episode of Planet Earth II. Really stunning photography – much more so than in previous nature series, in my opinion – making up for some fairly familiar sights (lemurs bouncing around, crabs on Christmas Island, etc). What surprised me most was the trip to Zavodovski Island, of which I had never heard – and I’m an islands buff, with a penchant for polar history books.
Off I went to Wikipedia. It’s in the South Sandwich group (below South Georgia), with an active volcano (Mount Asphyxia) its raison d’etre, and the names of its headlands suggests what was on the minds of its discoverers – Fume Point, Noxious Bluff, Pungent Point, Reek Point, Acrid Point and Stench Point.
But more curious still, it has inspired this piece of music by the Portico Quartet: ‘(Something’s Going Down On) Zavodovski Island’.
Ironically, unless you’re a chinstrap penguin, almost nothing is going down on Zavodovski Island.
I’m guilty myself of creating instrumental music with titles namechecking Arctic islands. Are there any other great sub-Antarctic tunes I need to hear?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auSDaWl-Fmg