lakes
the antarctic sun
released April 22, 2026
Nyos
Okeechobee
Tulare
Cochise
Giiwas
A selection of drone-y ambient demos ranging from 2018–2026. For Earth Day, inspired by… lakes.
1. Lake Nyos is a volcanic lake in Cameroon and the site of the second confirmed limnic eruption of lake overturn in the world—in 1986, the lake erupted an invisible cloud of carbon dioxide that suffocated 1,746 people and 3,500 livestock.
2. Lake Okeechobee is the largest freshwater lake in Florida, covering over 730 square miles, but with an average depth of only nine feet. It has consistently been ranked as the most polluted lake in the United States, due to agricultural runoff. When the toxic water is high, it is pumped out by the U.S. Army Corps of engineers into nearby estuaries where it kills marine life.
3. Tulare Lake was once the largest freshwater lake in western North America and the home of some of the most impressive wetlands on the continent. Beginning in the late 1800s, the marshes and lake were drained for agriculture in the Central Valley. The lake is now almost entirely gone, with less than 1% of its original surface area remaining.
4. Cochise Lake was a pluvial lake in southeastern Arizona around 14,000 years ago, the remains of which are the Wilcox Playa endorheic basin—an impressive dry lakebed that is home to many endemic desert insects. Wilcox Playa is the site of the largest tiger beetle diversity in the United States. It was a bombing range in the 1940s.
5. Giiwas is the Klamath/Modoc name for the volcanic Crater Lake in southern Oregon, the deepest lake in the United States, left behind by the collapse of Mount Mazama in an eruption nearly 8,000 years ago. The album cover is a photograph of Phantom Ship, a small island in Giiwas, taken by myself when wildfire smoke filled the basin during my visit in 2017.
All tracks written and recorded by Solomon Hendrix.
