Ludwig Berger - Crying Glacier - Vinyl LP

A personal sound portrait of the Morteratsch Glacier in the Swiss Alps. Recorded over more than ten years, Crying Glacier approaches the glacier as a presence with voice and agency — closely aligned with the notion of environmental personhood.

Developed in summer 2023, the project takes the form of both a documentary film and a vinyl LP. It traces a long-term relationship between listener and glacier. Using hydrophones, Ludwig Berger explores water-filled crevasses and melt channels, revealing a spectrum of sonic articulations: bubbling, cracking, rasping, humming. Voices emerge that seem animal, human, synthetic — forming a dense, layered glacial noise.

The composition shifts between extreme proximity and broader acoustic horizons, ending with a speculative soundscape of the valley after the glacier’s disappearance. Sounds from the project have been presented at UNESCO Paris, the UN Headquarters in New York, and the World Heritage Committee.

Credits LP:
Sounds by Vadret da Morteratsch (Morteratsch Glacier)
Recorded and composed by Ludwig Berger, Grison Alps, Switzerland, 2016–2023
Original soundtrack for the film Crying Glacier directed by Lutz Stautner
Stills taken from Crying Glacier, cinematography by Philipp Becker
Mastered by Mathieu Bonnafous
Design and text by Pablo Diserens
Part of Forms of Minutiae’s Ice Sounds series, in celebration of the International Year of Glaciers’ Preservation (UNESCO & WMO, 2025)
Published by Forms of Minutiae — FOM15 — 2025