Jim Nollman Jim Nollman is a Washington state-based musician, sound artist and author interested in interspecies communication. The Solovetsky Islands were loaded with beluga whales that hadn't seen people in 70 years. Jim Nollman, musical composer and sound artistSP: What is your favorite memory of working with orcas or beluga whales? We were confronted with beluga whales, and I said, "I don't really want to play the guitar or the mandolin with the beluga whales, because I've tried that all over the Arctic and I've never had much success. Say I'm playing in a key of D; they would come up and play the G in perfect time.