P RIMA AMAZONIA P RIMA AMAZONIA

Prima Amazonia Portraits of Acoustic Biodiversity from the Primary Equatorial Rainforest

CREDITS DAVID MONACCHI

1 - Canoe trip in flooded forest (12:34) Field recordings and research:

DAVID MONACCHI David Monacchi 2 - Night soundscapes (06:20) (February 2002 – Amazon, Brazil)

3 - Dawn sequence (10:58) Production: David Monacchi and Bernie Krause 4 - Day soundscapes (16:06) (October 2007 – Mastering at CNMAT, University of California, Berkeley) 5 - Dusk sequence (13:04) Photos and commentary: 6 - A touching dialogue (04:43) David Monacchi

Total (64:00) Design: Luca Arduini This Cd contains unaltered high-definition field recordings reconstructing the 24-hour cycle of a unique soundscape WSI-056 WSI-056

2007 Wild Sanctuary – California

web: www.wildsanctuary.com 2007 David Monacchi – Italy P. O. Box 536 Glen Ellen California 95442 web: www.davidmonacchi.it WSI-056 Prima Amazonia Portraits of Acoustic Biodiversity from the Primary Equatorial Rainforest A soundscape reconstruction

The dynamic equilibrium of this rich tropical biome was recorded at the onset of the rainy season throughout the entire circadian cycle for a period of 20 days. An accurate selection of the most significant moments among the original large corpus of field recordings has been recomposed in the format of a sound portrait of unaltered and unmixed soundscapes.

Three hierarchic levels of reconstruction and representation of the original environment were considered both in the field and in the studio analysis-editing process: The circadian cycle (24 hours) – It is along the equator where days are equal to nights all year round, and where natural rhythms are impressively regular and balanced. The sections of the overall work are proportionately and chronologically coherent with the original sound- scape beginning 2 hours after sunset; The main habitats – terrestrial forest, flooded forest, and riverbank forest; Different recording spots in the same habitat.

The compositional process aims to create an organic sound portrait of the variety found in the entire sonic environment, focusing first on the chronological aspect then on the habitat and finally on the location aspects. The listener will be carried on a time-coherent journey through the different habitats.

Due to the microphone techniques used, I recommend that headphones be used while listening to this Cd. Track list

1 - Canoe trip in flooded forest (12:34) 4 - Day soundscapes (16:06) Flooded forest habitat – This recording was made at 9 pm from the canoe which was slowly Terrestrial forest and flooded forest habitats – (in the foreground) Cicadas, birds in their nest and steadily moving into the multi-pattern rhythmic soundscape. It is particularly interesting as from a flooded forest canoe location, an afternoon rainstorm. it is a result of the constant change of sound perspective on the surrounding habitat of a flood- Bird species: Blue-crowned Motmot (Momotus momota), Capuchinbird (Perissocephalus tricolor), Yellow Rumped ed forest. The various sound languages of sedentary species (insects, amphibians and birds Cacique (Cacicus ciela), Mealy Parrot (Amazona farinosa), cicadas and crickets. in this case), are naturally approached, mixed and left behind, in a slow transition of interweav- 5 - Dusk sequence ing spaces. This unique untreated recording introduces the concept that underlies the entire (13:04) work: the recordings are performed as a time-coherent journey through different spaces. Terrestrial forest habitat – the original material for this sequence is again a continuous 90 mi- nute recording beginning at 4.45 pm, when the light entering the forest starts to decrease. Among the species in this track: Common Potoo (Nyctibeus griseus), bats, many species of frogs. This sequence, unlike that for the dawn, is presented as a series of six 2-minute excerpts ta- 2 - Night soundscapes (06:20) ken every 15 minutes from the original continuous recording. The excerpts in this case are left Riverbank forest and terrestrial forest habitats – (in the foreground) Howler Monkeys are separated to give a clear sense of the mutations in the overall presence of sonic languages. clearly heard in the first fragment, followed by various species of frogs and a very diverse Bird species: Spotted Antpitta (Hylopezus macularius), Tawny-bellied Screech-Owl (Megascops watsonii), Scream- ensemble of insects, concluding with the sounds of crickets and humid drizzle at the end ing Piha (Lipaugus vociferans), Black-tailed Trogon (Trogon melanurus) Hauxwell’s Thrush (Turdus hauxwelli), Co- coa Thrush (Turdus fumigatus), Xiphocolaptes woodcreeper (Xiphocolaptes Promeropirhynchus). White-necked of the night. Thrush (Turdus albicollis), Amazonia Pygmy Owl (Glaucidium hardyi), Blue Headed Pionus (Pionus menstruus), Ruddy Pigeon (Columba subvinacea), Red-belly trogon (trogon sp.) Other sounds in the foreground: squirrels, 3 - Dawn sequence (10:58) many species of frogs, crickets and cicadas. Terrestrial forest habitat – The original material for this sequence is a continuous 90 minute 6 - A touching dialogue recording beginning at 5.45 am, when the light penetrating the dense terrestrial forest habi- (04:43) tat starts to increase, transforming it slowly as day breaks. This is one of the moments when Riverbank forest – (in the foreground) Macaws progressively leave the acoustic space free the subtle circadian changes of the soundscape are more evident. Six excerpts have been for a couple of Toucans and their beautiful polyphonic play in the reverberant surroundings. extrapolated from the original recording and gradually cross-faded to simulate a natural time- Bird species: Blue-and-yellow Macaw (Ara ararauna), White-throated Toucan (Ramphastos tucanus) lapse, suitable for the compressed duration of this CD. Bird species: Speckled Chachalaca (Ortalis guttatus), Variegated Tinamou (Crypturellus variegatus), White-necked Thrush (Turdus albicollis), Black-banded Woodcreeper (Dendrocolaptes picumnus), large Macaw (Ara sp.) Location and technical notes The trip was made possible thanks to the help of both Greenpeace, which provided es- sential support in Manaus (Brazil), as well as basic information on the state of the forest, and Vivamazzonia, an Italian NGO which hosted me in its field center for about a month, also providing an expert local guide. The location of the entire field research took place in an area around the Gaspar river, a tributary of the Jauperì river which flows into the Rio Negro in the state of Amazonas, just 1 degree south of the equator. Recording location: Jauperì river Coordinates: 1°08’20’’ South, 61°33’40’’ West Amazon Basin and Rio Negro river On a practical note, the Jauperì River is 20 hours by boat from Manaus, while it takes 2 hours more by canoe to reach the location of the Vivamazzonia field center (about six hours from the nearest source of constant electricity). These recordings were made possible thanks to a system of solar-panel-powered batteries. The sound was picked up through an experimental binaural/omni-directional sphere microphone with Schoeps capsules, and a regular Schoeps ORTF system, both pre-amplified by a high dynamic portable preamp, and recorded onto a high definition digital recorder Tascam DAP-1. Water element and acoustic properties From an acoustic point of view, the three main habitats are substantially different for their sound absorption properties and reverberation due to the presence or absence of water: In the Amazon basin the water level between the dry and the rainy seasons can vary by as much as 10 meters. Many forest areas are flooded and the borders between rivers and land - In the terrestrial forest habitat, sound is strongly reflected by high leafy canopies, diffracted erased. As a consequence, water shapes the entire region and it is, for the people who live in by tree trunks, and largely absorbed by the ground. These characteristics create the typical these places, the only possible means of movement. delicate reverberation, which lends to the soundscape the suggestion of an indoor space The interaction with the element ‘water’ was a fundamental component of the trip from various where sound can only travel for short distances. (Listen also to tracks 3 and 5) points of view. - In the flooded forest habitat, the sound properties of the water floor are introduced, - In the riverbank forest habitat on the other hand, there is no ceiling to reflect sound. Re- creating a totally reflective environment. The analogy with an architectonic space such as a verberated sound sources come only from the trees which flank the river, sometimes with cathedral with ceilings and columns is immediate. Reverberation acts quite similarly, reach- perceivable echoes; the overall impression is that of being in an open space, but with many ing an RT60 of as much as 1.8 seconds and giving to the flooded forest the unique sound sounds coming from the surrounding forest or flooded forest. The sounds in this case can of an indoor reverberated space. (Listen also to track 1) travel for long distances. (Listen also to track 6) From a visual point of view, the large rivers are the only places that afford the possibility of a relatively deeper field of vision. The Amazon rainforest is, in the majority of cases, totally impenetrable to sight. The visual perception of spaces is always forbidden, closed. The ear acts as a compass, an organ providing a sense of distance and orientation. Inhabitants of the rainforest are very skillful with the creation of acoustic reference points, which are es- sential for moving and hunting. They know exactly which sounds are coming from sedentary animals and which ones are coming from species that move over greater spaces and which therefore cannot be used as a reference point. During the rainy season the forest becomes navigable and ‘opens up’ visually because of the absence of the lower undergrowth (which is flooded). However, it becomes less reliable as regards recognition of sound directions since the reverberation increases.

At the end of the trip I suddenly realized that during the entire time I had been there, I hadn’t had the desire to listen to music or play my flutes and that’s quite unusual. I tried to under- stand this. I came to the conclusion that the soundscape was so rich and organized that my ear had become full of ‘aesthetic’ stimuli. As a composer of electro-acoustic music, I am used to relating music to organized sounds. Probably the sounds of a primary rainforest are the most organized natural soundscapes you can find on Earth. Every single animal sound gesture has been in exactly the same place (in time, in frequency bandwidth, in space) for thousands of years, and you perceive this instantly. Furthermore, being in the equatorial area, sometimes you are in front of impressive time regularities. The Arara birds and the Parrots came to the forest riverbanks every day at 5.45 pm (if the weather was not rainy), made a racket for 30 minutes, and then left around 6.15 pm, leaving the acoustic space free for the Toucans..

D. M. Excerpts from the diary of the trip ...in this thick forest, sound seems to be the only possible means of communicating, ma- ting, and defining one’s territory. The soundscape here, seems to be finely tuned to reach the maximum balance. There is an internal order which can be visualized... Each species improvises on a theme which has been the same for thousands of years, nevertheless continuing to evolve slowly and imperceptibly. ....insects share the same acoustic space with extraordinary efficiency, finding their own niche of frequency or rhythmic variation. The extraordinary interplay and the efficiency between all these languages leaves me, as a composer, redundant... The whole ensemble of sound languages is in continuous transformation throughout the light cycle... The ancient giants preserve the subtle memory of the earth. When the oldest living beings are slaughtered, all is lost. The temperature, the humidity, the lunar phases, and the seasons are the score that every instrument follows and performs...... Some of these sounds could already be extinct.

Nature here is a clock, regulated by its own unstoppable cycles and by the imagination of The primary acoustic bio-diversity suggests an order for music... each singer... ..and the music suggests how to listen to the acoustic environment. D. M. spectrogram - Track 3 from 8:30 to 10:45 Travelling multimedia concert/sound installation

In 2003 these field recordings gave rise to the multimedia concert “Fragments of a Sonic World in Extinction”, presented also as a multi-channel sound installation with real-time spectrogram video projections and relevant fragments from the trip diary. The work has been created through a sequence of sound documentaries and eco-acoustic compositions. It has been widely performed in Europe and North America in theatres and contemporary art and music venues.

Ear to the Earth Festival – New York, October 2007 - (Mark Moffett and D. M.) Large-scale project overview High definition 3D recordings, made with an experimental microphone based on an ‘Ambi- sonic’ system, will be carried out from extensive field research to be made in the Amazon, “Fragments of Extinction” is a research project which aims to record the sonic environments central Africa, and Southeast Asia, for a period of two years beginning in 2008. of the three principal areas of primary equatorial rainforest remaining on the planet. The recorded sounds will be brought back to cultural institutions (contemporary art mu- It has been conceived as a vehicle for raising public awareness of the bio-acoustic aspect seums, natural history museums and music venues) and played, through large spherical of our environmental heritage and of the serious environmental issues pertaining to the loss arrays of loudspeakers, in their pure unaltered form, as three-dimensional sound portraits of of tropical forests and the related extinction of species. The goal of this work is to commu- a vanishing world and electro-acoustic musical compositions for sonic art installations. nicate the organic equilibrium and the intrinsic beauty of a primary soundscape, and it’s po- A full sequence of multi-channel compositions will be produced from a 24-hour sound tential for the creation of relevant eco-acoustic compositions. It is multi-disciplinary: a place reconstruction of soundscapes (as they occur in nature) to a final audio-video ‘eco-acoustic where technology and science meet music and art to address environmental issues. composition’ exploring and revealing the complexity of nature through the media of art.

Primary old-growth forests are home to the oldest and richest ecosystems in existence today. It is accepted that the world is undergoing the sixth mass extinction and these rich tropical ecosystems are the most affected areas. The present estimated rate of extinction is calculated at around 27,000 species per year, compared to what has been the average rate of one species every four years during the last 65 million years. According to reliable estimates, if things continue at this exponentially increasing rate, by 2050 the bio-diversity of the planet will be reduced by more than one third as a result of climate change and hu- man pressure on natural habitats. We will lose a great part of the originally estimated 5 to 20 million living species of our planet, and this will be all the more tragic if we consider that at the moment only 1.7 million species have even been catalogued, most of which have been barely studied, if in fact at all. One in four mammals, one in eight birds, one third of all amphibians and 70 per cent of the world’s assessed plants now appear on the Red List of endangered plants and animals. According to the World Conservation Union, which draws up the annual list, the extinction rate is up to 10,000 higher than expected. (Data from World Watch Institute, and IUCN World Conservation Union 2006) CREDITS Field recordings and research: David Monacchi (February 2002 – Amazon, Brazil)

Production, photos and commentary: David Monacchi (October 2007 – Mastering at CNMAT, University of California, Berkeley)

Design: Luca Arduini

2007 David Monacchi - Italy web: www.davidmonacchi.it 2007 Wild Sanctuary – California web: www.wildsanctuary.com P. O. Box 536 Glen Ellen California 95442

WSI-056

Special thanks to:

Bernie Krause – Wild Sanctuary, for his creative Dan Lane, Willem–Pier Vellinga, Octavio contribution and for providing the title. Salles, Sidney Dantas, Helge Kwam from ‘Xeno-Canto’ Lorenzo, Valdemar, Paul and Bianca - Vivamazzonia for the accurate recognition of bird species. Sergio Baffoni - Campagna foreste, Greenpeace Italia Joel Chadabe, Kristin Jones, Usree Bhattacharya, Greenpeace Manaus, Brazil. Patrick Downey, Edmund Campion, David Wessel.