corror, tiou, squa, pipiqui tells the story of Frederick the Great's attempted extermination of sparrows through sonic warfare in 1744. It reconstructs the subsequent attempts by composers to attract the sparrows back to the realm after Frederick's edict brought about ecological disaster. Staged in a hanging bird feeder, it complicates interactions between music history and ecology, probing how things might have turned out differently if we had learnt from Frederick's mistakes, and replaced the man-over-nature stance of the enlightenment with a philosophy that embraced ecological symbiosis with non-human agents. The title is taken from a birdsong-inspired poem by J. M. Bechstein.

Exhibited at Easterfield Festival, Hamburg, 2022

corror, tiou, squa, pipiqui (with Nina Kuttler)

x.y. ensemble
recorded live at I'Klectik Art Lab, London
20.05.2016

Laughter Studies 4 (for soprano, mixed quartet & jazz trio)

Performed by Jennifer Walshe and Juliet Fraser

louisdheudieres

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