Entomophonie (Entomophonia) by Leon Louder
The Montréal Insectarium, one of five Espace pour la vie museums, presents Entomophonie, a Celebration of Entomophilia through sound by composer Leon Louder.
The title is a play on the French word "Entomophobie" (meaning "fear of insects). Replacing the "b" with an "n", and fear becomes simply "sounds". It took about four months of on-and-off work -- from cataloguing the sounds provided to me by the Insectarium, to recording my own in the field, and finally a behind the scenes visit to record some more. The thing is, most insects actually survive by being as quiet as possible -- but some of them will make pretty interesting noises when disturbed. The fact that sound, or lack of sound, beauty, or grotesqueness -- that all of these qualities are related mostly to survival, became the idea that guided me in composition. As far as turning the sounds into music, I was interested both in the natural rhythms already present in insect song, which are often in odd timings and irregular, which I love, and also the potential fun to be had creating "artificial" rhythmic montages. Surprisingly, when stretched, certain sounds also leant themselves well to more melodic material, often with an eerie quality.
Commissioned by the Montreal Insectarium as a live performance on the MUTEK festival's outdoor stage,
The artist used various sampling and sound manipulation techniques to craft music entirely from insect sounds.
Tracklist
| 1. | Chorale | 4:38 |
| 2. | Pollenators | 3:33 |
| 3. | Dialogue | 3:08 |
| 4. | Tropical Toccata | 3:05 |
| 5. | Psyché | 3:49 |
| 6. | L'Envolée | 4:22 |
| 7. | Éphémères | 4:29 |
| 8. | Perce-Oreille | 5:41 |
| 9. | Odonata | 4:58 |
| 10. | Batucicada | 2:39 |
| 11. | Psyché (reprise) | 3:19 |
Credits
Written, produced, and mixed by Leon Louder
Mastered by Cristobal Urbina
Artwork by Isabella Salas
Special thanks to: Sophie Mallouin, Nela Paki, Marie-Laure Saidani, Thierry Boislard, Benjamin Taylor, Mariana Millhorat, Amelia Robinson, and everyone else at the Insectarium de Montreal and MUTEK Montreal.
Insects sampled on this recording include:
Common housefly (Musca domestica)
Amercican bumblebee (Bombus Pensylvanicus)
Silver-spotted tiger moth (Lophocampa argentata)
Cicada (recorded in India, species unknown)
Deer fly (Chrysopsinae)
Halloween hissing cockroach (Elliptorhina javanica)
Oblong winged Katydid (Amblycorypha oblongifolia)
Tree cricket (Oecanthus)
Snowy tree cricket (Oecanthus fultoni)
Fall field cricket (Gryllus_pennsylvanicus)
Asian tiger mosquito (Aedes albopictus)
Australian head banging termite (species unkown) (Drepanotermes)
Australian ants (Camponotus denticulatus)
Braconid parasitoid (Cotesia marginiventris)
Fire ant (Solenopsis invicta)
Queensland fruit fly (Bactrocera tyroni)
Phorid fly (Pseudacteon tricuspis)
Mediterranean fruit fly (Ceratitis capitata)
Salt marsh mosquito (Aedes taeniorynchus)
Pink Grasshopper (Amblycorypha oblongifolia)
Portholed Malaysian leaf katydid (Ancylecha fenestrata)
Giant cave cockroach (Blaberus giganteus)
Derby’s bronze flower beetle (Dicronorhina derbyana conradsi)
Gratte-couï bush cricket (Nesonotus reticulatus)
Mexican leafcutter ant (Atta mexicana)
No insects were harmed during the recording of this album, though some of them were visibly annoyed.
License
All rights reserved.Tags
Leon Louder is a Canadian composer and music producer with a varied practice combining different strains of underground dance, experimental electronic, and improvised electroacoustic music. He also manages a small physical/digital record label called Unfulfillment.