Laura Cannell - Antiphony of the Trees (2022)

ANTIPHONY OF THE TREES is the 7th solo album from the UK based composer/performer/improviser Laura Cannell. Here, for the first time she focusses solely on the recorder, taking inspiration from the sound of birdsong which cuts through the crisp air of the fen valley where she lives. Armed with bass, tenor, alto and double recorders, layered fragments are transcribed and re-interpreted from birdsong into a minimalist solo chamber music. From slow chordal drones, breathy and raw in the chilled air to the sound of rapidly beating wings, she plays all the parts of all the birds: the hoarders, the gatherers and the sacred birds. The avian arias which dominate the sky are echoed and the response comes from a new voice.

"When the roads and skies were forced into quietude, the birdsong took over. The skies and branches were full of clarity with avian voices echoing through the crisp air of the fen valley. Every day it felt like the dawn chorus was getting louder, longer and stronger. The hyper focussed trilling of antiphonal calls permeated the stillness. The birds were singing so loudly that I had to sing back.” (Laura Cannell)

The antiphonal calls and responses of feathered creatures are reflected and mimicked through oscillating difference tones, minimal use of delay and organ-like polyphonic passages. Not wanting to be explicitly bird-like the tracks were composed and improvised by transcribing and playing along with the wild avian voices which echoed down the chimney pipe and through wide open doors and windows.

Antiphony of the Trees was recorded in 2021 in Laura’s kitchen which she has repurposed as her main studio over the past 2 years. Her usual methods of exploring location based acoustics were not possible, she turned inward capturing and reinterpreting the songs of feathered travellers who pass through her garden and inhabit the nests, landscapes and structures of the farmyard and churchyard on either side, (previous albums duetted with specific spaces including: Wapping Hydraulic Power Station - The Earth with Her Crowns 2020, Southwold Lighthouse on the East Coast of England - Simultaneous Flight Movement 2017, and various medieval churches in states of cavernous ruin).

Cannell has a background in music from the medieval, renaissance and baroque periods as well as being a violinist, improvisor, composer and having roots in traditional folk music. The ghosts of polyphonic harmony and monophonic medieval dances still live under her fingers and can be heard as she creates a sonic landscape layered with sweet dissonance and deep churring birdsong. Extended instrumental techniques including harmonics, growls and difference tones enable her to create fantasy antiphonal conversations between herself and the bird song culture passing through her garden.

“Birds and Recorders have been intrinsically linked for centuries. We have mimicked and tried to capture bird song, learning their melodies by ear and playing them on these pastoral recorders, in the fields tending to sheep, in the courts of castles and the parlours of great and small houses. In the churchyards of Holland, and in recollections and depictions of angels and deities. We have captured birds to teach them our songs that we may keep them in our homes. We have trained them in caged classes to give to our lovers, as living, breathing, music reciting machines. We have collected their voices, notated them and used them in our music. We have conjured folklore from their wordless stories, and attached lessons and meanings to their songs.”