Ballenas

On his third solo recording for Cantaloupe Music, Florent Ghys radically retools his approach with Ritournelles & Mosaïques — a wide-ranging two-part opus that pulls back the curtain on an intrepid composer, double bassist and electronics bricoleur in full sonic exploration mode. The project’s first single, “Printemps Permanent,” sets the tone for the lively ride to follow. 

Ghys began work on the project in late 2019, but like the rest of the world, he soon found himself in the midst of a prolonged isolation period, which inspired him to expand his creative palette. On his previous album Télévision, Ghys had begun with an audio-visual idea; this time, he started at the root: with the sound.

“I just wanted to make something that sounded great,” he says, “so I spent a lot of time studying the sound of my bass — analyzing it, making sample libraries, recording it — and then studying the different microphones, different rooms, different basses too. So it really started from the sound, and then adapting my audio-visual ideas to that.”

Ritournelles (available on CD) is essentially the electro-acoustic, ambient instrumental portion of the program, while Mosaïques (available digitally) is more sample-based and electronic, seething with textural complexity. “Despite the differences though,” Ghys explains, “they really come from the same initial artistic impulse.”

Ritournelles & Mosaïques

Printemps Permanent

Buy on Bandcamp

17 October 2013: A singing blue whale was recorded by an Ocean Sonics icListen low frequency hydrophone deployed at 2662m depth in Cascadia Basin. The audio has been sped up by a factor of 10 to make it audible, as blue whale sounds are subsonic(below the range of human hearing). Original filename: ICLISTENLF224_20131017T223012.326Z_20131017T223512.276Z

www.oceannetworks.ca

Blue Whale Song

"En Afrique, quand un vieillard meurt, c’est une bibliothèque qui brûle." 

"In Africa, when an old man dies, it's a library burning." Amadou Hampate Ba" 

...quote with thanks to Ben Mandelson and Lucy Duran
credits
released November 10, 2015 

Recorded and Mastered by Simon Ratcliff at Sound and Motion Studios 
Guitar arrangements by Derek Gripper 
Guitar by Hermann Hauser III 
Cover by Twoshoes 
Produced by Derek Gripper 

Lampedusa and Miniyamba by Toumani Diabate and Sidiki Diabate 
Duga by Sekou Batourou Kouyate 
Salama, Bafoulabe, Korobali by Toumani Diabate and orig. performed with Ballake Sissoko for "New Ancient Strings" 
Maimouna by Ballake Sissoko 
Si Naani by Toumani Diabate 
Alfa Yaya by Amadu Bansang Jobarteh 
Anna Magdalena by Derek Gripper

01 Duga

2 Pol Nada - Ausencia De Rio Con Luna

4 Pol Nada - La Palma Con Agua

Iskra Pygmy - Improvisation

"Huna" an improvised piece written and performed on a Makai Instruments handpan.

Adrian J Portia - Huna

Bowhead whale songs

Over the course of a decade, Michael Gordon has collaborated with the world-renowned Kronos Quartet on a series of provocative works that have sought to stretch, bend and otherwise reshape the boundaries of modern classical music. Clouded Yellow assembles these works for the first time, perfectly encapsulating the breadth and complexity of this long-standing creative partnership. 

Clouded Yellow features four pieces: the title track (composed in 2010), Exalted (2010), The Sad Park (2006) and Potassium (2000). The title of the first refers to the clouded yellow butterfly, which is known in England for its mass migrations; the word “clouded” is also meant to describe the blurred harmonies and melodies of the piece. 

Potassium is for amplified string quartet and electronics, with a fuzz box used throughout to lend a mysterious distortion to the sound. The Sad Park is accompanied by recordings of children ages 3 to 4 and their responses to the tragic events of 9/11. Exalted, which also features the Young People’s Chorus of New York City conducted by Francisco Núñez, sets the opening of the Jewish Kaddish in Aramaic, connecting the choral voices of mourning to those of the children in The Sad Park.

Clouded Yellow

Michael Gordon & Kronos Quartet – Clouded Yellow

Example phrases of whale songs recorded off the Western Antarctic Peninsula.

http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0051214

Citation: Stimpert AK, Peavey LE, Friedlaender AS, Nowacek DP (2012) Humpback Whale Song and Foraging Behavior on an Antarctic Feeding Ground. PLoS ONE 7(12): e51214. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0051214

Image courtesy Ari Friedlaender under permit (NMFS #808-1735)

Humpack Whale Songs

Video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbVy0K6s05c
 
http://nadishana.com
Nadishana - handpan, electronics, composition
Loup Barrow - cristal baschet

"Steelness" derives from word "steel" - the material my instrument made from. Loup Barrow added otherworldly sound of Cristal Baschet to the song, we hope you enjoy!
This video shot in my village in Siberian taiga and features beautiful scenery of Kazyr river and Sayan mountains. 

Filmed in Cheremshanka and Gulyaevka, Siberia by Alexei Rags
Filmed in France by Laurent Morel & Gilles Pensart

Production, editing, color grading: Nadishana

Sound Microsurgery Department © 2019

Nadishana "Steelness"

A short recording of a chorus of singing humpback whales on the Silver Bank, Dominican Republic. There were so many whale songs overlapping that it was impossible to make a good estimated count. Learn more about the humpback whales of the Silver Bank at www.ConsciousBreathAdventures.com

Silver Bank Humpback Whale Chorus, February 12, 2013

El Espíritu de la Escalera

Semilla (con Mente Organica)

Ocean Networks Canada (ONC) is a world-leading research and ocean observing facility hosted and owned by the University of Victoria, and managed by the not-for profit ONC Society. ONC operates unparalleled observatories in the deep ocean and coastal waters of Canada’s three coasts–the Arctic, the Pacific and the Atlantic–gathering biological, chemical, geological and physical data to drive solutions for science, industry and society.

Blue Whale Song

Ocean Networks Canada

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