Extending his interest in accompaniment with field recording, Chicago cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm took his cello into the Florida Everglades along with soundscape artist and field recordist Gustavo Matamoros, seeking out night creatures, particularly vocalizing frogs, edited down to six intriguing tracks of "outdoor interspecies improvisation".
Format: CD Condition: New Released: 2018 Country: USA Packaging: Cardboard Gatefold Recorded at Everglades National Park the evening of February 02, 2016, as part of the January, 2016, Subtropics Artist Residency at Audiotheque: Fred Lonberg-Holm, resident artist; Gustavo Matamoros, collaborator. Gustavo used Sennheiser microphones in a mid- side configuration straight into a SoundDevices digital field recorder.
"Never one to shy away from unusual projects, cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm set out into the mosquito-infested swamps of Florida's Everglades in search of a host of amphibious collaborators. In the night air, he bowed and plucked in conversation with the environment, especially the vocalizing frogs, which seemed to take him on as an exotic member of their own.
Impeccably documented by the experienced soundscape artist and field recordist Gustavo Matamoros, working like a perverse herpetologist, Lonberg-Holm may have created a whole new genre of experimental audio: outdoor interspecies improvisation. Other features of the evening ambience are warmly embraced - a passing car, mysterious water noises, even the incessant mosquitoes. Determining where these swamp sounds end and the maestro's cello begins is perhaps the greatest challenge of all. Not something you can say often: Bow Hard at the Frog is a genuinely unique sonic experience.
The title comes from a direction in the score for Iannis Xennakis's Kottos."-Corbett vs. Dempsey