“I have heard it on misty migration nights when the dark has been alive with the high calling of birds, and in rapids when the air has been full of their rushing thunder. I have caught it at dawn when the mists were moving out of the bays, and on cold winter nights when the stars seemed close enough to touch. But the music can even be heard in the soft guttering of an open fire or in the beat of rain on a tent, and sometimes not until long afterward when, like an echo out of the past, you know it was there in some quiet place of when you were doing some simple thing in the out-of-doors.
“I have discovered that I am not alone in my listening; that almost everyone is listening for something, that the search for places where the singing may be heard goes on everywhere. It seems to be part of the hunger that all of us have for a time when we were closer to lakes and rivers, to mountains and meadows and forests, than we are today. Because of our almost forgotten past there is a restlessness within us, an impatience with things as they are, which modern life with its comforts and distractions does not seem to satisfy. We sense intuitively that there must be something more, search for panaceas we hope will give us a sense of reality, fill our days and nights with such activity and our minds with such busyness that there is little time to think. When the pace stops we are often lost, and we plunge once more into the maelstrom hoping that if we move fast enough, somehow we may fill the void within us. We may not know exactly what it is we are listening for, but we hunt as instinctively for opportunities and places to listen as sick animals look for healing herbs.
“Even the search is rewarding, for somehow in the process we tap the deep wells of racial experience that gives us a feeling of being part of an existence where life was simple and satisfactions were real. Uncounted centuries of the primitive have left their mark upon us, and civilization has not changed emotional needs that were ours before the dawn of history. That is the reason for the hunger, the listening, and the constant search. Should we actually glimpse the ancient glory of hearing the singing wilderness, cities and their confusion become places of quiet, speed and turmoil are slowed to the pace of the seasons, and tensions are replaced with calm.”
– Sigurd F. Olson, The Singing Wilderness, 1956
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[00:00] Ariel Kalma - “Almora Sunrise” (excerpt)
[01:46] Trabajo - Anxious Spaces Session (excerpt)
[03:41] OBENGE RECORDINGS - “ABARI DJEMA PT. 1 & 2” (excerpt)
[05:15] Excerpt from “Bosavi: Rainforest Music from Papua New Guinea”
[06:24] Harold Rubin, Barre Philips, & Tatsuya Nakatani – “Zetetic” (excerpt)
[08:22] The BOS Singers - “My God On High” (excerpt)
[09:47] C L E A N E R S - “Tijuana Bibles” (excerpt)
[12:55] Afrika Pseudobruitismus - “Backwards Invocation I”
[15:09] Grouper - “Call Across Rooms”
[17:51] Excerpt from “Bosavi: Rainforest Music from Papua New Guinea”
[19:30] Afrika Pseudobruitismus - “Backwards Invocation II” (excerpt)
[22:07] Monster Rally - “Sunflower” (excerpt)