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
Sewer Robot says
Dunno, but “Mount, Asphyxia” sounds like an extract from a to-do list for ladies who “entertain” MPs..
DogFacedBoy says
Antarctic boogie
iliketrains – Terra Nova
Mike_H says
I’m am very disappoint.
Not with the music, but with the video editors.
After all that forging ahead through obviously-faked icebergs, what happens?
I’m am very disappoint indeed!
Mike_H says
Want to add here that I have seen Portico Quartet live, and I think I enjoyed the experience.
I am currently pissed though, so anything I say may be completely disregarded without fear of me giving a flying f***.
Sniffity says
There’s a Disappointment Island….do you think they have choir?
Sniffity says
Shag Rock is one of the Auckland Islands…
Black Celebration says
Colin that’s an impressively specific and very limited remit. Unsurprisingly I have drawn a blank.
Yet I am convinced that Terry del Fuego was a stagename of some Tom Jones-type crooner from the past. Or a Only Fools and Horses character. According to Google, I seem to made that up. The only reference I have to “Terry” is a link to, and I quote, “Terry del Fuego’s Toilet of Glowing Negativity!” – you click on the link and nothing happens.
I hope that this contribution helps.
Kid Dynamite says
More of an ice Shelf than an island, really
Colin H says
That’s an impressive contribution, Kid. I think we can stretch the remit to ice shelfs… (or shelves?)
duco01 says
Well, if we can stretch the remit to ice shelves, we can have the Ross Ice Shelf, which is absolutely huge. Didn’t Scott and Amundsen cross it? I think they did.
So let’s have some Ross!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3uatcJqt54
Kaisfatdad says
What a magnificently obscure thread.
The names of the islands are wonderfully poetic.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Antarctic_and_subantarctic_islands
They are also it would seem a marvelous place for bird watching. Here’s music inspired by one: Ewing Island.
Sewer Robot says
I’m guessing if you’re walking around Dundas Island you need more than your “jeans on”…
(*Blimey, I’ve just looked him up – I never realised he was so posh!)
Locust says
Beehive Rock – do you think there are lobsters living there?
Colin H says
Beehive yourself, Loki! 🙂
Locust says
I thought about you, Colin, this Wednesday when we had the worst November snowstorm in 100 years (apparently) here…it was the kind of weather that you like to imagine that we have here all the time! Didn’t see any walrus though, unless hipsters with ice in their elaborate moustaches count? 😀