Search - Douglas Quin :: Forests: A Book of Hours

	Douglas Quin Forests: A Book of Hours Genres: International Music, New Age, Pop Track Listings (3) - Disc #1 Dawn Day Dusk Forests: A book of Hours is a groundbreaking combination of field recordings from forests in Madagascar, Africa, and Brazil, interwoven with sections of composed and improvised music that evokes connection and tunes our ea... more » « less
? Larger Image

CD Details

All Artists: Douglas Quin
Title: Forests: A Book of Hours
Members Wishing: 0
Total Copies: 0
Label: The Orchard
Original Release Date: 1/1/1999
Re-Release Date: 4/8/2000
Genres: International Music, New Age, Pop
Styles: Africa, Environmental, Meditation, Nature
Number of Discs: 1
SwapaCD Credits: 1
UPC: 669910314524

Synopsis

Album Description

Forests: A book of Hours is a groundbreaking combination of field recordings from forests in Madagascar, Africa, and Brazil, interwoven with sections of composed and improvised music that evokes connection and tunes our ears to the dynamics of nature's language. In subtle ways, even the day-cycle of "natural" sound at the heart of this 56 minute work is composed, as quin employs various electronic, structural, and emotional approaches to "Play" the soundscape itself. Among the highlights are several African choral pieces, a trans-Atlantic meeting of primates, and the blurring of distinctions between the musics of nature and man.

CD Reviews

Forest for the Trees

Robert Carlberg | Seattle | 04/02/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Tropical rainforests are hotbeds of activity, not only in the variety of verdant greenery but also the myriad of sounds emitted by the millions if not billions of unseen residents. Musicians have been inspired by this embarrassment of riches, among them Ariel Kalma's "Osmose" (1977), Dennis Hysom's "Cloud Forest" (1991), Martin Cradick/Baka Beyond's "Spirit of the Forest" (1993) and Rodney Franklin's "Rainforest Dreams" (1998).

Douglas Quin's production, assembled for German radio in 1997, has subtle choral, woodwind, percussive and electronic overtones over the lush soundscape of cicadas, howler monkeys and exotic birds. Many recordings have been mixed together -- including some of his famous Antarctica recordings (!) -- so authenticity of place is implied rather than enforced. Quin calls it "a mythical conjuring of place" and "a work of fiction" based on "being struck by the similarities that exist in the sounds of species half a world away" from each other in Brazil, Madagascar and Kenya. One might add Germany, and the strangest species of all.

"