LUDWIG BERGER - GARDEN OF EDIACARA
Cat #: OUS047
Release date: May 17, 2024
Distributed by Kudos: https://kudosdistribution.co.uk
Label Bandcamp: https://ousooo.bandcamp.com

«Music is a form of world building. I love to develop sonic characters and set them into fictional ecosystems with unique textures, acoustics and atmospheres. Each song forms a different landscape, through which a vocal character guides us and tries to tell us its stories.» — @ludwigberger

Ludwig Berger’s ‘fictional’ debut album «Garden Ediacara» unfolds as a musical eco-fiction, guiding listeners through a speculative ecosystem with synthesized vocals. Infused with storytelling techniques from sci-fi and fantasy, the album intertwines melodic songwriting with electroacoustic sound design. Inspired by hydrofeminism and eco-fiction novels, such as «A Door Into Ocean» by Joan Slonczewski, the album delves into the geological period of Ediacara around 600 million years ago — an era so remote it resonates as a glimpse into a possible future. The Ediacaran period was characterised by a peaceful and thriving ecosystem inhabited by soft-bodied creatures without eyes and bones, which were completely wiped out through the appearance of a new species. «Garden of Ediacara» alludes to this period, celebrating both the pleasures of biodiversity as well as mourning its inevitable loss. The narrative unfolds as an exploration of growth and interconnection in the shadow of a coming extinction. The track titles, written by Daisy Lafarge, reveal themselves as a cohesive poem and contribute to the album’s narrative.

Informed by his practice of field recording that focusses on intimate encounters with plants, animals and geological phenomena, as well as his studies in electroacoustic composition, Berger expands his palette for his debut in ‘fictional’ music. The album prominently features a post-human, non-binary death metal voice synthesizer, physical modeling instruments, and microscopic field recordings of plants, insects, as well as aquatic and geological life. With impressionistic strokes, Ludwig Berger crafts vibrant worlds using glassy timbres and more-than-human voices, guiding listeners through emotionally ambiguous terrain, seamlessly oscillating between moments of intimacy and irritation, melancholy and playfulness.

Ludwig Berger is a landscape sound artist, educator and musician. In his compositions, installations and performances, he enables intimate and playful sonic encounters with plants, animals, buildings and geological entities. He is founder and curator of the label Vertical Music, which releases field recordings and experimental music. Berger holds degrees in electroacoustic composition, as well as musicology, art history and literature. As a sound researcher and teacher at the Institute for Landscape Architecture at ETH Zurich from 2015-2022, he studied the sonic dimension of Japanese gardens, alpine glaciers and urban landscapes, which among other things led to the release of the acclaimed album trilogy ‘Melting Landscapes’, ‘Dammed Landscapes’ and ‘Buried Landscapes’.



ALBUM TRACKLIST
1. what seed quests for a coralline mud slump
2. where the body’s distant arrivals 
3. bake airwaves into symbols? 
4. like aurochs who fraternised with syntax of the riverbed
5. we stop short, frothy, outdoing the grass
6. rake a song-gush from the outcrop
7. or the noun of naïve particles
8. leeching off the glow-work of organ rooms  
9. we go candied in the marrow
10. grow dream-bark, a tree

CREDITS
Music written and produced by Ludwig Berger
Cover image by Paulin Rogues
Track list poem by Daisy Lafarge
Mastering by Manuel Oberholzer VFBM

OUS047
www.ous.ooo

Garden of Ediacara

rake a song-gush from the outcrop

Buy on Bandcamp

Ludwig Berger - 06 - rake a song-gush from the outcrop

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This June, Latency returned to the gardens of Villa Medici — also known as The French Academy in Rome — with a new series of commissioned soundscapes.

1. Duval Timothy - Go Without
2. Angel Bat Dawid - The Black Queen of Italy Strolls Through Her Garden
3. Mabe Fratti - Jardin de los Espirales
4. Kalia Vandever - Undulating Grace
5. CS + Kreme - Petal

Duval Timothy is a pianist, composer, and music producer who splits his time between London, UK, and Freetown, Sierra Leone. Besides music, his creative pursuits include painting, photography, sculpture, design, food, and textiles. His solo piano pieces lie at the intersection of contemporary minimalism and jazz. Timothy has collaborated with notable artists such as Kendrick Lamar, Solange, Vegyn, and the London Contemporary Orchestra.

Angel Bat Dawid is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, and educator based in Chicago. A key figure in the city’s jazz scene and a significant voice against racial discrimination, she has worked with artists like Marshall Allen and Makaya McCraven. Drawing inspiration from the poetry of Margaret Burroughs, the music of Yusef Lateef, and even Mozart, her work spans genres including free jazz, gospel, avant-garde, and hip-hop.

Mabe Fratti is a cellist and composer from Guatemala, now residing in Mexico. Influenced by contemporary classical composer Gyorgy Ligeti and cellist Jacqueline du Pré, her diverse musical journey includes collaborations across progressive metal, krautrock, dream pop, and jazz. Fratti uses cello, voice, and synthesizers to create sound installations, compositions, and free improvisations.

Kalia Vandever is a Grammy Award-winning trombonist and composer based in Brooklyn. Recognised as one of the prominent new voices in jazz, her distinctive approach to the trombone is characterised by a sonorous tone and lyrical improvisational style. Vandever is also known for her work as a side-woman, performing with artists such as Joel Ross, Immanuel Wilkins, Lizzo, and Moses Sumney.

CS & Kreme is a musical duo consisting of Conrad Standish and Sam Karmel, based in Melbourne. Their music transcends style and space, blending heavy dub processing, sweeping post-punk, and chamber music soundscapes into what they describe as ​“horizontal music.” Both seasoned musicians, Standish and Karmel have a rich history of collaborations in successful experimental groups such as F ingers and Bum Creek.

COMPOSER
Duval Timothy
Angel Bat Dawid
Mabe Fratti
Kalia Vandever
Conrad Standish
Sam Karmel

FORMAT
Digital + Streaming

DISTRIBUTION
Honest Jon’s

SOUND
Silas Bieri, Dennis Tousana

COVER ART
Kate Spencer Stewart

Duval Timothy - Go Without

Microsound1: Morphagene into Fumana with Falistri envelope and slew limiter
Microsound2: Arbhar into Zagrzeb
Pulse: USTA sequence; Brenso into Belgrad with Quadrax envelopes
Modulation from Batumi, Sapèl, øchd and Krait
Pad: Super6 with Valhalla
Reverbs: Valhalla SuperMassive and Eventide Blackhole Immersive
Mastered on SPL Passeq and AMEK Mastering Compressor

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Dialect - Under~Between

From Under~Between.
Available March 19, 2021.

Learn more: https://smarturl.it/rvngnl67

Under~Between

Dialect - Under~Between

Independent record label and curatorial platform. 
Established 2013 in Paris.

Listen to the entire Latency catalogue via https://www.latency.fr