From Deep Sea Vents (album), 2024.
Features: Bruce Hornsby (vocals), Alex Sopp (flute, vocals), Hideaki Aomori (clarinet), C.J. Camerieri (trumpet), Rob Moose (violin), Nadia Sirota (viola), Gabriel Cabezas (cello)
From BruceHornsby.com:
“An almost-vaudeville prance, with horns splashing and bass diving, a musical simulacrum of the teeming underwater world… a triumphant showtune from an aquatic musical that didn’t exist.”
Context:
Deep Sea Vents
Deep sea vents were first discovered in 1977 in the Galápagos Rift. The vents are openings on the ocean floor which emit hot, mineral-rich solutions to feed colonies of microbes and deep sea animals. Along with the vents, an entirely undiscovered ecosystem was found – hundreds of species found around the vents.
The hottest of these produce solutions at a temperature of 400°C (750°F) – hot enough to melt solid metal. The heat is generated when the seawater passes through hot volcanic rocks (see Geothermal fields, below). See also: Britannica.com.
Scientists later found that bacteria were converting the toxic minerals from the vents into usable forms of energy through a process called chemosynthesis, providing food for other vent organisms.
Geothermal fields
Geothermal fields are formed when water from the earth’s surface seeps through faults and cracks within rock to reach hot regions within the crust.
Cephalopod dreams
The cephalopod family has been fund to dream. Scientists studied the octopus and detected neural activity on the skin during sleep – their skin patterns changed. Those patterns didn’t match up with anything happening in the animals’ external surroundings. (“Octopi sleep nearby / Protect me from malicious fungi / Turning changing colours, red and yellow / A sallow green – cephalopod dreams”).
Video directed by Steven Mertens: