On a visit to Espiritu Santo island in Vanuatu, I recorded this mesmerizing performance of Ëtëtung, or "water music" - a percussive musical storytelling art form refined over countless generations by women in the northern Banks Islands of the Vanuatu archipelago.

The ensemble we saw on this Lindblad / National Geographic cruise was from Gaua Island. You can learn more in this deep-dive report written a few years ago by Dely Roy Nalo and Thomas Dick, originally published in Langscape Magazine: TEKS: Promoting and Safeguarding Biocultural Diversity through the Arts.
  / teks-promoting-and-safeguarding-biocultura...  

Scientists at Utah State University (with partners) have broken down the physics and acoustics of this remarkable rhythm section. Here’s their video and description:
   • Water Music of Vanuatu  
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/APS.DFD.2017....
Female musicians from the northern islands of Vanuatu use the water surface as an instrument to create a variety of unique sounds. Water music is typically made by a line of performers standing side by side, waist deep in clear island waters. Accompanied by singing, the women work in unison, exhibiting several percussive techniques, which include striking the water surface and throwing handfuls of water which scatter into droplets before impacting the surface. Each interaction produces a unique acoustic response corresponding to the air-water-hand interaction. We highlight the connection between water interaction, cavity shape and the resulting sound which was discovered by these people through their own experimentation.

Here’s more background on this aquatic percussion tradition from the Sinchi Foundation, which works to protect and sustain indigenous rights and knowledge:
https://sinchi-foundation.com/water-m...

For a wider view of the array of musical traditions across the Pacific and adjacent waters, click back to my Sustain What webcast with the founders of the "Small Island Big Song" project - BaoBao Chen of Taiwan and Tim Cole of Australia - along with Selina Leem, a spoken-word performer from the Marshall Islands.
   • A Pan-Pacific Music Conversation with...  
https://www.earth.columbia.edu/videos...

But mainly just listen AND SHARE this. I have more clips coming.

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