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CD
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TO 127CD
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$14.50
PREORDER
RELEASE DATE: 9/26/2025
Idylla is the third of part of a trilogy of nature-based recordings that Polish composer Michał Jacaszek has recorded for Touch. The first, Catalogue des Arbres, was a collaboration with Kwartludium that celebrated the earlier inspiration of French composer Olivier Messiaen's Catalogue des Oiseaux (1958). Gardenia was a response to a field recording workshop organized by Francisco Lopez in Limpopo province in South Africa, on the border with Botswana, the participants living in a subtropical nature reserve in the middle of nowhere. Idylla takes Jacaszek's unique approach to field recording a step further. Faced with the specter of AI and the progressive blur between digital simulation and the natural world, Jacaszek has made a series of source recordings and then used MIDI technology to isolate key sounds before scoring them for classical instruments and the vocal treatments performed by the 441Hz Choir from Gdańsk, under the direction of Anna Borkowicz. It is said that there is nothing new under the sun. Here is a collection of recordings that are poised between a lamentation for a disappearing world and a joyous reflection upon the beauty of being sat by a river, listening to birdsong amidst the movement of trees in a soft wind. Idylla consolidates Jacaszek's work as being amongst the most essential of any contemporary composer, its symphonic quality matched by its beauty and detail above and beneath.
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LP
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TO 117LP
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"Gardenia is an existing land located at the Limpopo province of South Africa, right at the border with Botswana. The place's real name is Mmabolela and it's a private nature reserve covering 6500ha of subtropical savanna and part of Limpopo River. In November 2019 I had a chance to visit the location and participate in an annual residency for composers and sound artists called 'Sonic Mmabolela,' initiated and curated by Francisco López. We lived in an isolated property in the middle of savanna having a unique opportunity to exist in undisturbed touch with the African wilderness. All the natural sounds later used to create Gardenia were captured there -- during longtime recording sessions over the virgin interior of Mmabolela Reserve. The album's field recording content was selected from several hours of birdsong, calls of frogs, insect noises, sounds of trees, bushes, grass as well as non-living natural elements like stones or shells. These field recordings were later digitally processed and used as part of nine musical arrangements. However the recording sources and the location of Gardenia is defined, it was not my intention to document a South African natural soundscape nor create any other kind of strict concept album. All I do in my work is an affirmation of beauty hidden in various aspects of the Creation." --MJ
Recorded, composed and produced by Michał Jacaszek. Photography and design by Jon Wozencroft. Mastered by Francisco López.
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Artist |
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CD
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TO 117CD
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"Gardenia is an existing land located at the Limpopo province of South Africa, right at the border with Botswana. The place's real name is Mmabolela and it's a private nature reserve covering 6500ha of subtropical savanna and part of Limpopo River. In November 2019, I had a chance to visit the location and participate in an annual residency for composers and sound artists called 'Sonic Mmabolela', initiated and curated by Francisco López. We lived in an isolated property in the middle of savanna having a unique opportunity to exist in undisturbed touch with the African wilderness. All the natural sounds later used to create Gardenia were captured there -- during longtime recording sessions over the virgin interior of Mmabolela Reserve. The album's field recording content was selected from several hours of birdsong, calls of frogs, insect noises, sounds of trees, bushes, grass as well as non-living natural elements like stones or shells. These field recordings were later digitally processed and used as part of nine musical arrangements. However, the recording sources and the location of Gardenia is defined, it was not my intention to document a South African natural soundscape nor create any other kind of strict concept album. All I do in my work is an affirmation of beauty hidden in various aspects of the Creation." --Michał Jacaszek
Recorded, composed, and produced by Michał Jacaszek. Photography + design: Jon Wozencroft. DVD case.
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