Kirsten Reese: Future Forest

I Noise
II Uniwald Mathislewald
III Solling Monitoring Recorder
IV A Morning in March
V Mathislewald Monitoring
VI Common Land–Moss–Kaiserstuhl
VII Forest Structure
VIII Night
IX Schorfheide–ADI and SMI
X Mähderklinge
XI Soils, Trees
XII Schorfheide–Questions

 

The composition Future Forest was created in collaboration with the Ensemble Recherche and the SWR Experimentalstudio, as well as in close collaboration with biologist and ecoacoustician Dr Sandra Müller from the University of Freiburg. ‘Future Forest’ is also the name of a research network at the University of Freiburg that develops innovative approaches to the conceptualisation and analysis of forests as socio-ecological systems.

Ecoacoustics has established itself as an independent field of research since the 2010s, investigating ecological relationships using acoustic methods and combining findings from ecology, behavioural research, bioacoustics and psychoacoustics. The composition consists, on the one hand, of condensed field recordings from day trips that Sandra Müller and I undertook in different seasons to research areas of the University of Freiburg, mainly in the Black Forest.

 

Recordings made with special microphones, hydrophones and ground sensors, also originate from these locations. Future Forest also uses long-term recordings from recorders that record one minute every ten minutes over months and years at research areas of the University of Freiburg in the Black Forest, Solling and Schorfheide.

I developed the musical material of the instruments by tracking down and extracting pitches, harmonies and rhythms in the recordings using various software/algorithms or pitches and sound gestures perceptible to my ear, through sonification of research data and methods of imaginative imitation in sessions with the musicians of the Ensemble Recherche. There were thus diverse translation processes and their compositional continuation.

 

Imitation and translation require attentive listening and reinforce this in turn. During the excursions, but also when listening to the recordings repeatedly, one becomes aware of how the pitches of different sounds and noises in the forest correspond, how calls and songs are rhythmically structured, or how all sounds–such as the rustling of the wind and leaves–repeat themselves and vary at the same time.

 

An approximation of the sounds of nature is achieved through technology–some sounds can only be made audible through technology–and through the instrumental sounds produced by highly specialised players. Their sophisticated instrumental technique and jointly developed, appropriate extended playing techniques give rise to »natural« creature-like voices and modes of expression–the search for mimetic sound forms also brings out the individual modes of expression of the musicians on their instruments. In addition, the sounds of the instruments are emphasised in the audio recordings using special microphones and specific microphone placement. I was interested in the connections between translation and imitation in machine recording, instrumental technique as a human-mediated cultural technique, and human expression.

 

What does the forest sound like? The forest rustles (wind) and chirps (birds), splashes and drips (rain and watercourses). Most forest soundscapes are not spectacular, but diverse. The composition invites listeners to listen closely by combining specific sound spaces: through focus and attention, the small becomes large and the inaudible becomes perceptible. Through focus, differentiation, reflection and enrichment via the instrumental voices, the soundscapes/recordings undergo a poetic transformation. The scientific perspective, the interdisciplinary exchange between artist and scientist, flows into the projected text. The composition explores questions that artists, scientists and ultimately the audience alike ask themselves: what does the forest (nature) mean to us, can we learn from adaptive processes and the resilience of ecological communities, (how) can (must) we protect the forest, what role does art play in our relationship with nature …

(Kirsten Reese)