Albums
Synthetic Bird Music
2023
Genre: IDM/Experimental
Release Date: 2023
By Michael McKinney
Reviewed November 26, 2023
Experimental label mappa editions’ elegiac collection of avian electronics is full of deliberately laid textures and out-there approaches to composition.
The trees are disappearing, and so are their inhabitants. In the past 20 years, global forest coverage has dropped by roughly 10 percent, and one-third of bird species are expected to go extinct by the end of this century. Jakub Juhás, head of Slovakian label mappa editions, is surely aware of this. Over the years, the label has built a hall of mirrors from environmental recordings and experimental compositions; a look into its catalog reveals haunted cave dives, explorations of rust, and snowed-in a capella. It is a body of work interested in solitude, intimacy, and hushed electronics. Mappa’s latest release, , compiles 32 electronic and experimental music pieces inextricably bound up with nature. The works range from years old to brand new, but they are joined by a shared interest in organic and electronic synthesis. It is the sound of musicians the world over reckoning with an ongoing climate catastrophe.