2021.11.12 CNSMDP, France
Ensemble Intercontemporain + DAIC du CNSMDP
Direction : Léo Margue

Clarinette : Takahiro Katayama
Clarinette Basse : Alain Billard
Trombone : Maxime Col
Percussion : Gilles Durot
Piano : Chisato Taniguchi
Violon : Jeanne-Marie Conquer
Alto : Paul-Julien Quillier
Violoncelle : Eric-Maria Couturier
Contrebasse : Nicolas Crosse

Saï-saï pour ensemble

Extreme Quiet Village [11 saxophones]

The European fire-bellied toad is, in fact, a frog. (No fire, either.) However, this is more than compensated by its satisfyingly fun-to-say Latin name: Bombina bombina. They also produce antimicrobial peptides in their skin secretions – the even more fun-to-say ‘bombinins’. 

Native to eastern mainland Europe – recorded here in the protected land of Poland’s Barycz Valley Landscape Park – they use their internal vocal sacs to produce their “whoop” call: the mournful, slow-motion honk immortalized here. Imagine the sound that clowns might make when they cry and you won’t be far off.

Bombina bombina mysterious call

Forget Me Not is written for amplified ensemble: saxophone, e-guitar, piano, synth, percussion, and analog electronics

- commissioned by I & I Foundation, written for Ensemble Nikel

Premiere: Klangspuren Festival, September 2022

Forget Me Not (2022) for Ensemble Nikel

Recorded respectfully on the land of the Nuennone people.

The Superb Lyrebird (Menura novaehollandiae victoriae) is not native to Tasmania: it was deliberately introduced there - by an ornithology group. Between 1934 and 1949, 22 Superb Lyrebirds were released at Mt Field National Park in the mid south and at Hastings in the far south. The Lyrebirds flourished, and continue to spread widely. Today, experts estimate that their population must be well over 10,000, if not even higher. The Superb Lyrebird has basically 'gone feral'.  And it's known to be having some negative impacts on forest ecosystems. However, one thing that I haven't yet seen discussed or studied is what negative acoustic-ecological impacts Lyrebirds might be having upon native and especially endemic Tasmanian bird species. Some forest soundscapes are being overwhelmed by multiple Lyrebirds, spread through the forest, simultaneously performing intricate, complex and well-projected mimicry for very long periods of time. Fascinating as this is, it's very hard to believe that the native and endemic bird species can communicate naturally and effectively, as they need to do, when such mayhem is going on.

2023.09.24 Superb Lyrebird Mimicking Other Birds. Dawn. Huon Valley. Early Spring.

This longish recording focusses on First Light rather than Dawn (Second Light and Sunrise), although it includes the beginnings of the latter. It ought to be listened to with good quality headphones, or good quality speakers, at a mid-range volume of around fifty to sixty per cent. The recording is unedited: one of the things that particularly interests me, and that I especially enjoy, about this early spring First Light forest soundscape (and other similar early spring forest Dawn recordings that I made during this road trip to Tasmania) is precisely its very gradual, slow, minimal, and spacious development. This sounds nothing like an overly-busy tropical rainforest. The 'silence' never completely disappears.

In this rich, dense, moist, cool-temperature southern forest of Tasmania, at the time that this excerpt begins, it is still fairly dark to the human eye. The first First Light call is (as usual) from a Black Currawong (Strepera fuliginosa), a species of Currawong that is found only in Tasmania. Its call is quite unique, very unlike any mainland Currawong, and I grew to adore it, and to recognise it as the main Tasmanian forest sentinel of dawn.

We also hear the final few night calls of Ninox novaeseelandiae leucopsis, which I would prefer to refer to as the 'Tasmanian Boobook', rather than its more common and familiar name, 'Morepork'. Both names are, of course, onomatopoeic labels provided by Europeans. But the name 'Morepork' suggests, to me, an image of radically displaced Europeans in an unfamiliar landscape, craving pork meat, and hearing this beautiful owl call as though it were expressing their own cravings: 'More pork!" (Interestingly, DNA evidence has suggested that Ninox novaeseelandiae is more closely related to the New Zealand Boobook (also commonly known in NZ as the 'Morepork') than to the mainland Southern Boobook (Ninox boobook).)

The other early caller, here, is the Yellow Wattlebird (Anthocaera paradoxa), also found only in Tasmania.

Gradually, the 'Dawn Chorus' stirs and unfurls into a more richly-populated wakefulness. Thankfully, the introduced and now feral Superb Lyrebirds, which have seriously infested this region, seem to be late risers that enjoy sleeping in: somewhat later in the original recording, they pretty much take over most of the forest soundscape.

Recorded with meditative respect upon the land of the Nuenonne tribe of the Palawa people. The recording was made with a pair of MKH 8040s in ORTF into an F3 recorder.

2023.09.23 First Light. Huon Valley. Early Spring.

Night Listening means sitting, through the night, in a chosen location, as still and quiet as possible, often for many hours, absorbed in purely listening, while recording. This is an excerpt from a recent Night Listening. It involves three Brushtail Possums, and one Red Fox. The responses of the Possums to the barking of the Fox are very interesting. (Don't start with the volume raised to more than 50 to 60 per cent: some of the fox barks are quite close and loud.)

Recorded on the land of the Kaurna people.

2023.12.28 Night Listening. Night Forest. Red Fox and Brushtail Possums. Early Summer.

More on this 630th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Creative Sufficiency — The Assignment: Count your tools in advance of employing them — at: https://disquiet.com/0630/

This project was proposed by Alex (aka XHG) from Switzerland, who also drew the cover image.

About the Disquiet Junto: https://disquiet.com/junto/

Subscribe to project announcements: https://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0630-creative-sufficiency/

No Matter What Disquiet0630

Stocastic4

Multi-track recording by members of Ensemble Dal Niente.
Recording/Mixing: Igor Santos

video of premier: https://vimeo.com/387611594#

"Patina" progresses from a volatile mass of percussive sounds towards its tainted reproduction. A flickering and multi-colored mixture of noisy and pitched gestures.

The "Zoetrope" pieces mix together disparate elements in teeming masses to see if they can be made to sound as one. How does their coming together and falling apart enrich or erase the individual motifs' identities? And which of their qualities do the individual motifs end up contributing to the whole? The Zoetrope series is inspired by the pre-cinematic animation device the "Zoetrope" and emulates its achievement of cohesion through speed, varied imitation and repetition.

Composed May/June 2019 (Baltimore)

Zoetrope V: Patina (2019)

Henri Colombat

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