Lake Baikal is basically a rift lake in Russia, located in southern Siberia, between Irkutsk Oblast to the northwest and the Buryat Republic to the southeast. It’s the largest freshwater lake by volume in the world, containing roughly 20% of the world’s unfrozen surface fresh water, with a maximum depth of 1,642m. A group of Siberian percussionists have become internet sensations with an exhibition of ice drumming on this frozen wonderland. In minus 20°C, they discovered that the 1m thick ice has a distinctive rhythm all of its own. Click here for more pictures of Lake Baikal. Continue reading for two additional videos.
“I felt like we were playing on the drums that Nature has left out for us, alone under the sun on the frozen waters of the world’s most magnificent lake. You see your hand touching the ice, you hear the sound, but your mind just can’t take it in. You cannot believe that, yes, this beautiful clear sound is indeed produced by ice,” said Irkutsk architect Natalya Vlasevskaya, 31, organizer of the Etnobit percussion group.
