Sinkhole

The "Pozzo del Merro" is a sinkhole (a depression in the land surface) located a few kilometers east of Rome. It is like a big funnel in the limestone of Lias age (about 200 million years). The name "Merro" is a Central Italy dialectical word meaning a "very deep and steep precipice". The mouth of the sink has a circular boundary with a 150 meters diameter. The dry section, with walls covered by luxurious vegetation, is about 70 meters deep. On the bottom lies a small circular lake 100 feet in diameter, hiding a dark liquid abyss more than 1016 feet deep. In early 2000 three different Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs) were used to explore the sinkhole. The first of these, the "Mercurio" dived to 210 meters (maximum operative pressure limit) without reaching the bottom. The second ROV "Hyball 300" reached 310 meters without touching down either. Prometeo, the third ROV, apparently reached the bottom at -392 meters in March 2002 but actually the sinkhole may continue on a curved, deeper path. In any cases, the "pozzo del merro" remains the world's deepest sinkhole. The tracks of this CD were obtained using only original recordings made in the Pozzo del Merro sinkhole in the first, dry part of the hole, and in the wet, bottom part, using special microphones and sensing hardware. The recorded sounds were then treated in studio with some basic processing: pitch shifting, filtering, reverberating, mixing, fading. When possible, arbitrary musical structures were avoided in the final mix. (Taken from the sleeve notes) CD comes packaged inside a gatefold sleeve. Gatefold sleeve shows a different tracklist. CD names this release "Sinkholes".