November 22, 2005Bird Brain...
The new Kate Bush release Aerial is gorgeous and has me hook, line, and sinker---entranced. It took me about 3-4 listens before it really grabbed me, but what did it the most, I think, was the theme of bird songs which she uses on some of the pieces. The artwork is also wonderful to this same effect.
Birds have always fascinated me, especially on the metaphysical level. When it comes to sound and vibration, birds seem to have a very intimate relationship with both things. The bird song is one of my favourite sounds to hear and as a beginning to moderately focused practitioner of my own form of sound sculpting, I am quite fond of using them in my work. I realize I am not alone in this as many composers, musicians, poets, writers, singers, you name it-- have been captured over the ages by the bird muse. Maybe it has something to do with ageing. Maybe one day you just wake up and start hearing these bird songs more and more as you begin to realize how much life you have lived (or how much left to go, etc...) There's a fairytale in there somewhere.
I just found out about a French composer by the name of Olivier Messiaen, who I had not heard of before my co-worker mentioned it to me during our morning tea break. I started to tell him about one of the songs on Aerial where Kate blends a few very interesting bird songs with a track of her laughing along with them, sometimes to the point of a sort of maniacal hysteria. Somehow this really works well with the bird songs there. It's a weird mesh but it works. I know this feeling, it hits me when I least expect it but always involving some form of nature breaking my trance-- definitely bird songs have had that effect. Strikes you right to your soul when you hear certain ones.
Ok. More about Olivier Messiaen, who really is amazing the more I read about him:
Olivier Messiaen
Great French composer of the second half of the 20th century. Messiaen wrote harmonically colourful and rhythmically complex music informed by a deep religious faith and a fascination for birdsong and the diversity of nature. He wrote in most genres and was also an organist and one of the most influential teachers of his time.
Here is a list of some of the bird songs (.wav format) along with .midi files of the compositions Messiaen created from them on his work called Réveil des oiseaux (roughly translated: Alarm clock of the birds)
L'ENGOULEVENT roughly translated: The GOAT-SUCKER (?)
This one is particularly nice and vibrates your entire head if you are wearing headphones and put your player on 'repeat' for a few minutes. This is a sensation I enjoy greatly when it comes to noise, just as long as my nose doesn't bleed.
Birds have always fascinated me, especially on the metaphysical level. When it comes to sound and vibration, birds seem to have a very intimate relationship with both things. The bird song is one of my favourite sounds to hear and as a beginning to moderately focused practitioner of my own form of sound sculpting, I am quite fond of using them in my work. I realize I am not alone in this as many composers, musicians, poets, writers, singers, you name it-- have been captured over the ages by the bird muse. Maybe it has something to do with ageing. Maybe one day you just wake up and start hearing these bird songs more and more as you begin to realize how much life you have lived (or how much left to go, etc...) There's a fairytale in there somewhere.
I just found out about a French composer by the name of Olivier Messiaen, who I had not heard of before my co-worker mentioned it to me during our morning tea break. I started to tell him about one of the songs on Aerial where Kate blends a few very interesting bird songs with a track of her laughing along with them, sometimes to the point of a sort of maniacal hysteria. Somehow this really works well with the bird songs there. It's a weird mesh but it works. I know this feeling, it hits me when I least expect it but always involving some form of nature breaking my trance-- definitely bird songs have had that effect. Strikes you right to your soul when you hear certain ones.
Ok. More about Olivier Messiaen, who really is amazing the more I read about him:
Olivier Messiaen
Great French composer of the second half of the 20th century. Messiaen wrote harmonically colourful and rhythmically complex music informed by a deep religious faith and a fascination for birdsong and the diversity of nature. He wrote in most genres and was also an organist and one of the most influential teachers of his time.
Here is a list of some of the bird songs (.wav format) along with .midi files of the compositions Messiaen created from them on his work called Réveil des oiseaux (roughly translated: Alarm clock of the birds)
L'ENGOULEVENT roughly translated: The GOAT-SUCKER (?)
This one is particularly nice and vibrates your entire head if you are wearing headphones and put your player on 'repeat' for a few minutes. This is a sensation I enjoy greatly when it comes to noise, just as long as my nose doesn't bleed.
