Beats Artistry: A Guide to the Birdsong of South America
Stop everything for a moment. Pause to listen. This is a very beautiful project, and a valuable project too.
An album of fresh South American music, each track inspired by the song of endangered birds.
Rhythm and Roots is in process of creating A Guide to the Birdsong of South America, a compilation album highlighting talented musicians from across the continent and challenging them to create a track inspired by the song of an endangered bird from their home country.
“From Patagonia to the Amazon rainforest, South America has some of the most biologically diverse areas on the planet. It is also home to an incredible range of bird species, many of which are under threat of extinction, such as the Hooded Grebe with only around 800 adults left in the wild or the critically endangered Araripe Manakin, endemic to Brazil. A Guide to the Birdsong of South America wants to help tell their tale and spread their song through inspiring music by some of the continent’s rising stars.
“The artists featured on the compilation represent the new wave of South American musicians or producers revisiting the roots of the region’s rich musical tradition in the 21st century. The album will be a diverse snapshot of the region’s new sound, from the digital cumbia of Peru’s Dengue Dengue Dengue, to the Brazilian ‘experimental singer-songwriter-producer‘ Lucas Santtana.”
The idea comes from the hugely talented El Búho, maker of lovely melody and Latin American rhythms, a constant feature in my musical explorations. There is a Kickstarter project underway now (until end July) to fund the print and release of vinyl, special artwork for each track, production and distribution. You can read more and pledge here at the Kickstarter site.
A preview of the first track has now been presented, Lulacruza from Argentina / Colombia, with the song of the critically endangered Niceforo’s Wren – also from Colombia:
There is now a wealth of information about the critically endangered bird the Niceforo’s Wren, and the musicians, over at the Rhythm and Roots blog. From there, you can go and support the project (at the same time ordering the music). And know that when you listen to these birds, you have done something to help the beautiful creatures’ stories continue.
