Die slowakischen Mappa Editions bringen in Kürze ein neues Doppel-Tape heraus, auf dem insgesamt 32 Künstlerinnen und Künstler eingens nachempfundene Vogelstimmen in unterschiedlichen Graden der Naturnähe, z.T. vor weiteren Klangkulissen präsentieren. Einige der Acts stammen aus dem engeren Umfeld des Labels, unseren Lesern sicher bekannt sind Baldruin, Mike Cooper, Grykë Pyje, Matthias Püch und Felicity Mangan. Neben der ästhetischen Seite, die stark auf die Erinnerungen der Beitragenden fokussiert ist, hat die von Mappa-Gründer Jakub Juhás kompilierte Sammlung auch das Anliegen, auf die Ausbeutung der Natur und das Artensterben seit dem industriellen Zeitalter hinzuweisen. Der Erlös des Samplers geht an die Organisation SOS/BirdLife Slovakia, die sich dem Schutz der Lebensräume von Vögeln in ihrer Region widmet. “Synthetic Bird Music” erscheint mit Artwork von Roberta Di Paolo und ist auch digital erhältlich.
“When you listen to birds, they usually talk about food, sex/family, or anxiety. If they knew about the true nature of humanity’s cruel and exploitative relationship with birds, they would be discussing rebellion. Humanity’s current trajectory about birds is to cause the extinction of one-third of all bird species by the end of this century. This record crystallises the borders between memory, beauty, and anxiety. At the core is an amalgam of all the birds we have met and heard, their sounds synthesised from a blend of memories. Esthetically it simulates the qualities of bird sounds, hitting similar frequential sweet spots. There is a great variety of birds captured here, from high to low frequencies, from solo voices to groups, from birds standing on their own to complex world-building, where the bird voices are part of an ecosystem, becoming one of the instruments.
You could stop there, enjoying this record on a musical level, but it invites us to do one step further, to consider reconfiguring our relationship with the Earth and its inhabitants. To question our impact, and to ask why we need synthetic bird music. Is it just a visionary endeavour or is it because we are failing at fostering a world in which organic birds and other creatures can thrive? 32 artists from the whole world, including our favourite artists from Eastern Europe, have contributed to this compilation both with new and previously released music. Their music is ordered from dawn to dusk and into the night. For many of the artists it’s their first time on mappa, but some have previously released an album with us”. (Mappa Editions)