Between The Ears - Jamming With Birds

BETWEEN THE EARS - JAMMING WITH BIRDS (320kbs-m4a/66mb/29mins)
BBC Radio 3 broadcast: 5th June 2022

"In May, I sing night and day,
In June, I change my tune,
In July, far off I fly..."

Ten years ago, musician Cosmo Sheldrake started making an album of bird songs, each track inspired by an endangered species on the 'Birds of Conservation Concern' list. The album is called Wake Up Calls, a nod to the dawn chorus, but also because it is doing a second kind of waking up. Each track is a celebration of the birds that we are rapidly losing. Birds like the nightingale, the mistle thrush, the skylark, the cuckoo. With their decline comes the loss of the musical, emotional and cultural richness they bring to our lives.

For Cosmo, the process of making music with these birds opened up a whole new way of thinking about composition. It's the birds who set the tempos and inform the melodies. You could even say it’s the birds who are the lead vocalists, provoking questions around intellectual property: who owns this music? Should the birds get publishing royalties? Are the birds collaborators of sorts?

Featuring, in order of appearance, writer Robert MacFarlane, poet Erin Robinsong, sound ecologist Bernie Krause, artist Marcus Coates, musician Brian Eno, musician Sam Lee and artist Rachel Berwick.

Produced by Becky Ripley.