What's wrong with planet Earth? Humans! Join the 'A Different Nature' collective from 8:00 pm Monday, April 22nd until 5:30 am Tuesday Morning for 9 1/2 hours of environmental sounscapes in celebration of Earth Day 2019. Human voices will vanish from the KBOO airwaves, giving way to a total emersion in natural sounds (albeit recorded, mixed, and broadcast by humans...). This will be A Different Nature's fourth Earth Day special. Program founder Richard Francis organized the first one in 1998, when sounds from the natural world filled KBOO's airwaves for an entire 24-hours; Richard also headed-up a second12-hour special in 2004, and after his passing, the collective aired another 12-hour special 2013. Hope you can tune in for this year's celebration. If you are unable to do so in real time, it will be archived at kboo.fm for future listening.
Programmers for the Earth Day Special : 8-10 - Andy Hosch; 10-12 - Kathy Fors; 12-1:30 - Rolf Semprebon; 1:30-3:30 - Dr. Zomb; 3:30-5:30 - Chris M.
Program notes
8:00 pm - 9:00 pm - Our first hour presents a collage mixed in real time including source material from 11 different recordings (in the order they first appear): * Bernie Krause: Whales, Wolves and Eagles of Glacier Bay (Alaska) * Bernie Krause: Ocean Dreams (Big Sur coast of California) * Ruth Happel: Loons of Echo Pond (Adirondack Mountains) * Bernie Krauuse & Ruth Happel: Desert Solitudes (Sonoran/Chihuauan desert) * Jarra: Sama’ 2 (from Taman Negara, Malaysia) * Les Gilbert: Kakadu Billabong (Queensland, Australia) * Francisco López: La Selva (Caribbean lowlands of Costa Rica) * Steven Feld: Rainforest Soundwalks: Ambiences of Bosavi, Papua New Guinea * Bernie Krause: Zimbabwe - Gardens of Eden * Douglas Quin: Cartinga: Soundscapes from Brazil’s Atlantic Rainforest * Bernie Krause: Kalimantaan: Heaven Before Time (Borneo)
9:00 pm - 10:00 pm - Oregon Soundscapes : collage mixed by ADN collective member Andy Hosch from recordings he has made around the state over the years: We begin with a short barrage of crickets recorded here in Portland last summer. This fades into songbirds recorded at dawn at Diamond, in southeastern Oregon, near the Malheur National Refuge. These morning birds come and go throughout the hour. Around 9:05, sounds from the Oregon Sealion Cave enter into the mix: water, sea lions, and pigeon guillemots - they will weave in and out of the mix until around 9:16 and again from 9:27 until 9:38. Starting around 9:12 evening sounds from near Malheur enter into the mix, including snipes, frogs, and the occasional bovine. These fade in and out throughout the rest of the hour. From about 9:22 to 9:23:30 and again from 9:42 to 9:45, sounds of a waterfall in Silver Falls State Park can be heard. And beginning at around 9:48 surf sounds recorded at Hug Point State Park enter into the picture...
10:00 pm - 11:00 pm Our third hour commences with male and female gibbons morning duet, recorded in Taman Negara Park, Malaysia by Jean Roche (4'41); this segues into A Morning in the Australian Bush recorded by Andrew Skeoch & Sarah Koschak and featuring magpie and kookaburra... And then, rather quickly (due to technical issues) we migrate to a dawn chorus in the Brazilian Rainforest recorded by Ruth Happel (part of Rykodisc's "Atmosphere Collection") .... Now the ancient ungulates have invaded the warm and humid environs and are rutting amongst the riparian regions.... The whales evolved from hooved mammals (as we all know) and so we have the Humpback whale frolicking with the mightly bull elk -- a foreshadowing of what is to come. (Bull Elk Sounds: Bugles, Grunts and more from the Rocky Mtn Elk Fdn * Sounds of the Humpback Whale) We follow this with a recording of early morning surf n birds at Cape Lookout State Park, May 2016, recorded by Paul Beck. The high tide low rumble of the sea vibrates beneath ones feet on the eroding shore. . . "Hear and Feel the splendor of the mightly Pacific as the waves hurtle inexorably toward the rock strewn coast." Yes, that last bit was courtesy of Gentle Persuation: Pacific Shores Sounds of the Surf. Wait! What is that rising from the surf? Is it Moby Dick, no it is not a white whale, perchance a humpback? (Echos of Nature) If only our migrating Gray whales spoke so eloquently.
11:00 - Midnight The whales bid you good evening as they sing for their supper. No, they will not play your benefit for free, but they will share their insight if only you listen. Like heaven and hell we are always above and below the waters-- we want to give the Leopard Seals a chance to interject their philosophy. An Orca cannot remain silent and gives just a cursory listen to the travails of the Weddell Seal before she consumes him. (At the Sea Ice Edge from Antarctica - Douglas Quin) Global warming is causing some calving -- not from the Orca-- it's the glacier letting go. The underwater chorus of concern reminds us of this grave turn of events....I heard Adelie was a big star in the UK, but it turns out she's a penguin. The underwater sounds of the Weddel Seal inspired Edgar Winter's Frankenstein. Wow, that portamento really rocks. Let's hear another glissando from The Weddel Group. Excellent show, boys. We heard from the Papas, let's heard from the Mamas.
Midnight - 12:30 am A far away place. The crows warn of the coming storm. The wolves lament the dark clouds. Strange creatures bellow out in the night. Elephants trumpet as the waters rise. The night is full of beasts, alone and in packs, steeling themselves against the angry skies, looking for shelter or looking for prey while the sky is torn open by lightening bolt aftwer lightening bolt. The rains begin to fall, as the crows had warned. A mournful dirge..
12:25 am - 12:50 am The crows and other birds debate and argue while insect chirp blissfully in the background. Some joke at the others' fears. Later the primates interject with their greater brainpower, reminding the birds that their ancestors the dinosaurs no longer run the world.
12:50 am - 1:15 am Things get very quiet for a few minutes of contemplation. Then an elephant and a lion share a truce while the birds and insects find their way in the expanding savanah. Nature is all about the birds and the bees, sex and violence, fucking to procreate and killing to eat. We find all of this in the swamp, as frogs and insects covert in the heat. It is a joyful time in the woods as more and more birds and insects join the symphony of life.
1:15 am -1:30 am And then it must end. Another thunder storm breaks open the sky. The waters are rising. A vast mourning of the changing world. The alarm is sounded. The creatures call out warning! Warning! The rains fall and the waters rise.
1:30 the monkeys find out ... hey, you elks, GET A ROOM! 1:45 the oceans are rising, at least two anyway... 1:50 saltwater frogs? 1:55 the new normal - the jungle at high tide... 2:03 hey, you elks, get a room! Wait those aren't elks! 2:10 actually, yes they are 2:15 its getting cold in here... 2:25 the loonatic is on the grass... in Antarctica... 2:35 horn honk bird into Venezuela... 2:40 where's my umbrella? 2:45 I am the walrus... underwater... 2:52 group of black colobus 3:00 the birds and the bugs...
3:20 A few late-night birds keep the crickets company, a winged creature buzzes... 3:30 Somewhere in Finland a wild dog is barking, rain begins to fall... 3:40 a peal of thunder, doesn't stop the tree frogs 3:50 On the bayou, sounds of the Russian River, 4:10 The Kalahari Desert at night... frogs... cicadas... 4:30 At last the Pied Butcher birds of Australia make an appearance... winds across the tundra... 4:50 the ocean meets the river 5:00 am hip deep in a Canadian wetland... 5:15 dawn breaks over Malheur Lake, Eastern Oregon and a few robins sing you gently to thy alarm clock... Thank you for listening.
- KBOO