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Field Recording 1977

by The General Assembly

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"The birds are silent in the woods.
Just wait: Soon enough
You will be quiet too"
- Robert Hass

A short bonus track from the Vanishing Point sessions. It's inspired by the work of Bernie Krause:

"When musician and naturalist Bernie Krause drops his microphones into the pristine coral reef waters of Fiji, he picks up a raucous mix of sighs, beats, glissandos, cries, groans, tones, grunts, beats and clicks.

"The water pulsates with the sound of creatures vying for acoustic bandwidth. He hears crustaceans, parrot fish, anemones, wrasses, sharks, shrimps, puffers and surgeonfish. Some gnash their teeth, others use their bladders or tails to make sound. Sea anemones grunt and belch. Every creature on the reef makes its own sound.

"But half a mile away, where the same reef is badly damaged, he can only pick up the sound of waves and a few snapping shrimp. It is, he says, the desolate sound of extinction."

1977 is the year of my birth. This piece is a partner to the final track on the album proper. Between them they point to the vanishing of the planet's natural soundscape over time - unnoticeable in the moment, but obvious at different recording sites or, heartbreakingly, at the same site just a few decades apart.

MW

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released September 28, 2017

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The General Assembly VIC, Australia

The General Assembly's music charts the points where human and non-human nature blur and dissolve into one.

Matt Wicking's songs paint engrossing and unsettling pictures using poetry and magic-realism. While the song-writing draws from the deep well folk storytelling, sonically it soars with reverb-drenched guitars, synth and mellotron creating swelling soundscapes.
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