Bat sounds in modifying technique | Matthias Göttsche
Gr 007 | Gruen CD-R > [Sold Out]
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40 minutes field recordings trough ultrasound detector Matthias Göttsche, head of the NABU department for protection of the bats in Schleswig-Holstein, puts his recordings at grünrekorder’s disposal, which originated from an infra-red-film project for species analysis in association with students from the University of Hamburg.
The sound picture shows a self-organizing aesthetics of chaos and coincidence as the interfering of hundreds of animals leaves a fine weaved sound pattern. For the purpose of species analysis the sound material is useless because it does not make clear the differences; for the subject of sound art it is a task.
Because of the reduction to only one track the listener has to go through it all at once and with it is confronted with his one staying power.
01 Fledermausschwarm | cutting:
1 Track (48’01“)
Bad Bramstedt / 2004
Gruenrekorder / Germany / 2004 / Gr 007 / LC 09488
Review:
Aquarius Records
GÖTTSCHE, MATTHIAS Fledermausrufe Im Modulationsverfahren (Gruenrekorder)
We recently discovered this little German label called Gruenrekorder, who specialize in „Phonography and Audio Art“ which translates to field recordings, turntablism and audio installations, which definitely sounded right up our alley. We then discovered that they had 60 or 70 releases, probably more by the time of this review, most cd-r’s and all incredibly limited, usually to 50 or less. Yikes. Had to do some quick thinking, so we picked two of the most promising sounding and got a bunch of those (a bunch meaning 25 copies, which is half of the pressing). So elsewhere on this list you’ll find the other Gruenrekorder release, a sound installation for turntables and plastic angels, which somehow seems to perfectly balance this one right here, a field recordings of bats, collected via ultrasound, much like the The Inaudible World cd / book we listed a while back, but while similar, the sounds here are different enough, that if you dug The Inaudible World, Fledermausrufe Im Modulationsverfahren makes a good addendum.
Collected by Matthias Gottsche, head of the NABU department for protection of the bats in Schleswig-Holstein, the sounds here were a part of an infrared film project, assembled for species analysis, but due to the overlap and chaos of the various animals recorded, it ended up useless as research material, leaving it to exist simply as sound art.
The best part is the description of this disc on Gruenrekorder’s website, explaining why it is all one track „Because of the reduction to only one track the listener has to go through it all at once and with it is confronted with his one staying power.“ Yes! And this will definitely test your staying power. As the sounds of bats, their sonar rendered audible to human ears, sounds a bit like several people playing Yahtzee!, shaking dice in those little plastic cups, but never actually rolling them, just shaking and shaking. The percussive rattle fluctuates from baseball card in the spokes flutter to a dense clattery cacophony, a tangled rhythmic web that is constantly shifting and undulating, and is in its own weird way quite soothing and hypnotic. Still hard to believe these sounds come out of bats…
Beautifully packaged, printed cd-r, striking black and white sleeve, cool infrared photos, but again, LIMITED TO ONLY 50 COPIES!!! So once these are gone, we won’t be able to get more.