I really like your work and your ideas behind it.

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

14/06/2023 Recorded in Primorska, Slovenia. Substrate-borne vibrations in a hay-meadow habitat. Different signals of the vibrational community in the area.

Obalni Travnik / Coastal meadow

The first form of communication was not language but vibration. Listen to an audio essay featuring the biologist Juan José López and sound artist Ludwig Berger who sonify species that soon threatens to become completely extinct - if we don't listen. 

This audio essay podcast was created by the musician, writer, and Norient editor Philipp Rhensius aka Alienationist @k-lone in autumn 2023 at Klang Moor Schopfe 2023. It is part of the Online Special «Sonic Natureculture»: each piece features conversations with (and sometimes sounds by) the artists and their installations, occasionally merging with Rhensius’ own compositions and poetry.

https://norient.com/sonic-natureculture

A Huge Reservoir of Life ‒ Audio Essay on Insects

NOÉMI BÜCHI - DOES IT STILL MATTER
Cat #: OUS050
Release date: May 24, 2024
Distributed by Kudos: https://kudosdistribution.co.uk
Label Bandcamp: https://ousooo.bandcamp.com

«The new avant-garde isn’t about creating something that doesn’t yet exist, it’s about abandoning and confusing rigid genres. I want to open up, in order to both abolish and reconstruct the musical past.» — Noémi Büchi @noemibuchi

Noémi Büchi’s album ‘Does It Still Matter’ completes a series of releases whose titles - ‘Matière’, ‘Matter’, and ‘Does It Still Matter’ - place the physicality of music in the center of attention. Büchi’s specific sound structures and aesthetic choices question the state of materiality in a world that is becoming more and more fluid and intangible.

From ‘Matière’ to ‘Matter’, Büchi subtly transferred from a focus on substance to questioning the enigmatic core of
being, passing from a noun to a verb, and from a single word to an inquiry. ‘Does It Still Matter’ weighs in on the importance of questioning. Her pieces juxtapose multi-layered analog synthesizer textures, crystal clear sounds and almost brutalistic noises, while they unfold in compositional structures akin to pop songs. Driven by an orchestra of myriad parts, her music creates transcendent intonations that resonate deeply with the listeners’ bodies. A daring blend of complexity and accessibility are molded into captivating sound sculptures that challenge and intrigue listeners alike.

Deviating from conventional time divisions, ’Does It Still Matter’ immerses listeners in a discordant succession of elements, and guides them towards an eternal present that erases the past with each new revelation, while maintaining it through recurring themes that serve as intimate memories. Büchi’s electronic maximalism questions our linear perception of time, offering a glimpse into a world where the past, present, and future converge into a singular moment. Her avant-garde approach rejects predictability, inviting listeners to immerse themselves fully in the present. Everything starts anew at any given instant. Each musical idea exists for one precise moment, rendering the future unpredictable.

‘Does It Still Matter’ unfolds against a backdrop of collective disaster and biocidal urgency, challenging the very essence of time. Büchi explains: «The world appears to have gone mad. It’s all but impossible to reflect on the meaning of avant-garde in music, considering the future in this sepulchral kind of stability of the human condition.» Her compositions resonate like an infernal machine, questioning the instantaneous dissipation of everything. Finally, echoes and fragments of sounds remain, haunting memories like ghostly companions.

’Does It Still Matter’ is an immersive experience that invites listeners to contemplate the impermanence of our world and the enduring power of sound.



CREDITS
Written and produced by Noémi Büchi 
Mixed & mastered by Manuel Oberholzer, Suoni Speziali (VFBM)
Album cover by Mirko Eremita, Encor Studio
Graphic design by Rebecca Morganti-Pfaffhauser

Does It Still Matter?

Window Display Of The Year

Noémi Büchi - 4 - Window Display Of The Year

LUDWIG BERGER - SPECIES LONELINESS
Cat #: OUS051
Release date: March 29, 2024
Distributed by Kudos: https://kudosdistribution.co.uk
Label Bandcamp: https://ousooo.bandcamp.com

«I wanted to revisit the sound worlds of 1970s eco-horror films, a time of growing fears about environmental consequences. Today, we no longer fear the revenge of frogs or insects; we are mourning their vanishing. My music channels the eerie, anticipatory dread of those films into a contemporary lament for what’s been lost and a search for what might still be restored.» — @ludwigberger

Leading up to his first ‘fictional’ album «Garden of Ediacara», which will be released on May 3rd via -OUS,  landscape sound artist Ludwig Berger presents the EP «Species Loneliness».

Building on an extensive and acclaimed body of work in sound art, field recordings, installation and performance, as well as music for film and theatre, the EP «Species Loneliness» and the subsequent  album «Garden of Ediacara» mark a shift in Berger’s creative work. But as he enters the realm of ‘fictional’ music by engaging with environmental emotions, he still relies on his far-reaching practice as a close listener and archivist of unheard sounds.

With «Species Loneliness», Berger explores a yearning for interspecies connection on a damaged planet. The six track EP presents a set of muted songs that are haunted by echoes of eco-horror and eco-gothic films of the past century, while interwoven raw field recordings create the space to breathe. The tracks center around the term of «Species Loneliness» — an ecological form of isolation and solitude. It expresses the feeling of homesickness while being at home, arising from the loss of natural habitats and the decline of biodiversity. Through layers of degraded samples, eco-nostalgia runs through the EP, longing for meaningful relationships obscured in the shadows of the Anthropocene.

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. In his musical work, Berger produces sonic eco-fictions with processed and synthetic sounds.  He has composed sound and music for award-winning films and theatre pieces and curated the landscape sound festival ‘Sonic Topologies’ in Zurich. He is also 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’.

CREDITS
Written and produced by Ludwig Berger 
Mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi
Album cover by Paulin Rogues

Species Loneliness

Cocoon Death

Ludwig Berger - Species Loneliness - 5 - Cocoon Death

Sea of Decay

Ludwig Berger - Species Loneliness - 1 - Sea Of Decay

IN+AROUND –OUS w/ Ludwig Berger Edit 14-04-2024

For the second ‘in Passing tides’ slyn is ecstatic to be joined by one of her largest inspirations, Slowfoam, who has curated the first thirty minutes of the show. Slowfoam navigates the frontiers of ecology and technology, delving into interconnectedness transcending past human bounds. Both taking large influence from the dynamics of natural systems, drift through an hour of textural ambience and meandering sounds.

in Passing tides w/ Slowfoam & slyn 20/05/24 - [Voices Radio]

IN+AROUND –OUS w/ Noémi Büchi 09-06-2024

This recording was awarded the Silver Fox 2018. The Silver Fox is the overall winner of the annual competition of the Wildlife Sound Recording Society. This is the long version of the recording - the competition entries are allowed to be max. two minutes long.
Recorded 2017 at the Amazon Refuge Lodge in Loreto, Peru. 2 x AT4022 omnis in an Olson Wing array.

WSRS Silver Fox Award 2018 - Afternoon by the Lodge

1959 sounds out the relationship between recording and remembering, between the fixed time of the medium and the fluent time of memory. Different scenes and reflections gel in an in a “theatre of the past that is constituted by memory” (Gaston Bachelard).

The composition includes sounds of a harp, a piano, flute, electronics, cassettes, telephones, wind, water, my family, my family home, my hometown and Henry Purcell. The recordings were taken the past six years and the first eight years of my life.

The piece came into being in the second half of 2012 and was composed inbetween moving from my old apartment in Erfurt and my new apartment in Weimar, at my family home in Alsace und the SeaM studio in Weimar.

The work is dedicated to the memory of my mother (born 1959).

1959

sonic ecologies 
🎐🦑💧👂🕷️🌵🔊

1959

Ludwig Berger

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