The Rainforest

Drums & Space | July 1st | Dead & Company | Boulder, CO |

Saturday’s Drums & Space will feature sounds and images from the film Voices of the Rainforest: A Day in the Life of Bosavi, Papua New Guinea. This film’s soundtrack is a 7.1 surround version of the CD of the same name, originally produced in 1991 by Mickey Hart in collaboration with recordist and researcher Steven Feld and members of a remote rainforest community in Papua New Guinea.

Structured as a day in the life of the rainforest and the music it inspires for Bosavi people, the CD and film immerse listeners in the continuous symphonic interactions of rainforest ambiences, the sounds of birds, insects, water and weather, with local activities of work, leisure, and ritual. Through sound and image, the project makes it possible to experience what it means to make music ecologically: to sing to, with, and about the rainforest.

The 24 hour “day in the life” soundscape approach, the first on CD to thoroughly fuse ambient environmental sounds and the music they inspire in a human society, remains a model of documenting the art of ecology and the ecology of art in the indigenous world. Additionally, since it’s inception more than 30 years ago all royalties directly aid the environmental, educational and medical needs of the Bosavi people through The Bosavi Peoples Fund.

“From my earliest encounter with Steven’s recordings in 1983, I deeply resonated with the idea that Bosavi people synchronize with the rainforest as a giant tuning fork,” Hart said. “I was totally fascinated by the way acute listening to rainforest birds brings out realities equally natural and spiritual: the birds being both clocks of everyday time, and the voices of Bosavi ancestors. And the song texts are rainforest maps. No wonder Bosavi people tune in to drum and sing to and with the forest. These recordings and images are a timeless inspiration.”

AUDIO:
Voices Of The Rainforest on Spotify
Voices of the Rainforest on Apple Music

VIDEO:
https://vimeo.com/ondemand/voicesoftherainforest

ANNIVERSARY EDITION:
25th anniversary CD/BluRay/Photobook With Introduction By Mickey Hart
https://store.der.org/voices-of-the-rainforest-p1025.aspx
(CHOOSE “Home Use” FORMAT)