Mahler (in/a) Cage | Casetta di Composizione
@ ACL 2021 ~ Top Ten Field Recording & Soundscape
The natural world existed long before the creation of instruments: music made by wind and waves, birds and beasts. During the pandemic, many people have rediscovered the aural joys of nature: music that is always playing, and that can best be heard without headphones. Field recording artists capture these sounds like others do photographs, and share their sonic souvenirs with the world.
This year’s picks travel from the heat of a volcano to the frigidity of Antarctica, with pit stops in between: rainforests, greenhouses, hidden islands and rivers. Some of these sounds exist a long plane ride away; others have been lost forever; still more wait just outside our windows, waiting to be heard. […]
Mahler recorded Song of the Earth in the cozy environment of the Composition House (pictured at the top of this article). Over a century later, Armaroli and Camnasio attempt to recreate his sonic environment using concepts from Cage. Toward the end of this imaginative reconstruction, the strains of Mahler’s labor waft through an elaborate tapestry of rural sounds. (Richard Allen)
link