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San Francisco-based guitarist Henry Kaiser counts among his sources music from East Asia, Northern India, and Africa. In the early 90s, he recorded six CDs in Madagascar. Later, Kaiser made a couple in Norway. Now, he's getting ready to participate in an Artists-and-Writers Program in even colder climes. The World's Stephen Snyder explains (audio) Stephen Snyder: Throughout his globe-trotting career, Henry Kaiser has always sought to do things a little bit differently. Henry Kaiser: What I'm doing is experimental. I try to do something nobody's done before to see what happens: music as "science fair project." SS: In a matter of weeks guitarist Henry Kaiser will begin the most challenging science fair project of his career. Outfitted by the National Science Foundation with sub-zero survival gear, Kaiser and a group of scientists will fly to the southernmost research facility on earth. If all goes according to plan, Henry Kaiser will be recording his next CD... in Antarctica. HK: Always having been a fan of world music and studying music from other places, I'm now in the funny position of being the first person to make commercial music on a whole continent, and that's an odd responsibilty to have. SS: Henry Kaiser is no stranger to science. He's been a scientific diving instructor at the University of California at Berkeley for 15 years. On the cover of this 1995 album, Eternity Blue, Kaiser is shown swimming - in full scuba gear - with dolphins and sea turtles. He hopes to dive under the Antarctic ice during his three month mission, but his main job will be to make music... no matter what the temperature is. HK: Well I plan to record the whole CD there, so I prepare technically by finding what kind of microphones operate at 60 below, and I've made a special acoustic guitar with composite materials - graphite, wood that's had epoxy injected into it - that you could could basically leave out in the snow for a couple of hours and then bring it into the suana and it wouldn't explode like most guitars and it would still sound good. SS: Many musicians have been inspired by the idea of Antarctica, but Kaiser will be the first one commissioned to compose Antarctic music on the spot. He says he goes there with no preconceived musical ideas. But he does have plans. He'll record in the hut built by Sir Ernest Shackleton's 1907 expedition just 97 miles short of the South Pole. Then Kaiser will carry his guitar and microphones to the geographical end of the earth. On this recording Kaiser produces a gliding sinewy sound by sliding the neck of a glass bottle up and down the strings of his guitar. He hopes to make similar music at the South Pole. There, on the spot where all of the earth's longitudinal lines meet, Kaiser plans to slide his guitar strings against the South Pole itself - yes there is a real metal pole driven into the ice there. Holding his guitar against the pole and walking three-hundred-sixty degrees 'round it, Kaiser plans to play what he calls "slide guitar around the world." In 1959, the world's nations signed a treaty that preserved Antarctica for peaceful purposes. While hot and cold wars have continued elsewhere, Antarctica remains demilitarized... a workplace for geologists, environmental researchers, biologists and support staff from many countries. Some of them are amateur musicians. HK: Well if you've got a station with a thousand people in it people have to entertain themselves and music's one of the best ways to do that. People play instruments in bands from bluegrass to punk to rock to blues. SS: And on January first, in the relatively balmy 30-degree weather of Antarctica's summer, 17 bands from the National Science Foundation's McMurdo station will gather for the world's southernmost outdoor music festival. The headline attraction at this year's "Ice-stock," as it's called, will be guitarist Henry Kaiser. ©2001 Public Radio International The World is a co-production of The BBC World service, PRI and WGBH, Boston.
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