Music from the ocean

It sounds like whale music, yet it is the whale's home environment causing the eerily beautiful tones that mesmerise everyone who visits the foreshore of Zadar, a northern Croatian coastal city.

Zadar suffered huge devastation in the Second World War and subsequent reconstruction turned much of the sea front into an unbroken, monotonous concrete wall. Architect Nikola BašiÄ‡ as part of the project to redesign the area, created this beautiful drawcard.

The 'music' is created when waves interact with a system of polyethylene tubes and a resonating cavity that turns the site into a large musical instrument. The random yet harmonic sounds draw visitors to the area, where they stay, captivated by the tones.

WATCH - and LISTEN to - this video to see what the Sea Organ is all about.

The organ looks like a series of broad steps leading down into the water. The lower steps allow water and air to flow in. It is then funneled into resonant chambers under the steps, and pushed out through the channels on the upper stairs, see below. These cause undulating, chime-like notes to be produced. Because the sea is always shifting and changing, the sea organ never sounds exactly the same twice. Each sound you hear is completely unique.

The stairs extend for about 70 meters along the water's edge. At the lowest sea-tide level 35 pipes of different lenght, diameter and tilts are built in vertically. On the pipes there are labiums (whistles), which play seven chords of five tones. Above the canal there are perforated stone stairs through which the sound comes out, the air pushed by the sea.

Simple, once you know, but a hugely innovative concept.

This site is a blend of human ideas and skills and the energy of the sea, waves, tide and flood, a place for relaxation, contemplation and conversation while listening to an endless concert of mystic harmonies of the "Orchestra of Nature".

Sea Organ was constructed according to the project made by architect Nikola BašiÄ‡ with the help of several experts. In 2006 Croatian architect Nikola BašiÄ‡ received the European Prize for Urban Public Space in Barcelona for his Zadar Sea Organ project, as the best among 207 candidate projects from across Europe.

See more....