Hollis Taylor is an Australian violinist,composer and zoomusicologist.For the past fifteen years Taylor has roamed Australia, recording the sounds of one particular bird species, the pied butcherbird(Cracticus nigrogularis).This bird to noted for the variety and lyrical beauty of its birdsong,and Taylor was inspired to transcribe hours of her field recordings of this bird and to have musicians play and record re-soundings of these transcriptions.The solo instruments heard on this recording are violin,vibraphone,recorders,flute,choir,bassoon, double bass, string quartet.
These are wonderful performances by the human musicians.Many of the recordings include field recordings of the pied butcherbirds, as well as, in some cases, other birds, cane toads and various other sounds caught by the microphones in the field.
There is something compelling in these tracks.The beauty and structural ingenuity of the melodies unfold through the skill of the musicians re-sounding these transcriptions.As the players attempt to mimic the melodies of the birds on their instruments, there's a sort of..transformation of the material-it enters the human realm.
I post short excerpts from the album.I wish there were more/longer clips to post.
https://soundcloud.com/realtime-arts...-bird-excerpts
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