The earth and I spring at each other

The original field recordings is symphonic in its beautiful showcase of nature at its finest, with birds, frogs and insects interweaving in the atmosphere of a spring evening - a perfect recording to choose as part of the annual Spring Project. 

Wanting to keep that feeling of the natural soundscape being a live performance, this composition is also a live performance, with various different synth and instrument parts laid down onto a Torso S-4 sampler, then performed live in response to the natural sounds. Its aim is to embellish and sit alongside the natural sounds, and to create an immersive nine-minute experience in which the listener can lose themselves equally in the natural or the synthesised sounds (and their interaction). 

The title comes from this wonderful Tomas Transtromer poem: 

In February life stood still.
The birds refused to fly and the soul
grated against the landscape as a boat
chafes against the jetty where it’s moored.

The trees were turned away. The snow’s depth
measured by the stubble poking through.
The footprints grew old out on the ice-crust.
Under a tarpaulin, language was being broken down.

Suddenly, something approaches the window.
I stop working and look up.
The colours blaze. Everything turns around.
The earth and I spring at each other.

Spring soundscape in Terranova, Italy reimagined by Cities and Memory.