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Lawrence English // A Mirror Holds The Sky CD + BOOK

Lawrence English // A Mirror Holds The Sky CD + BOOK

¥3,180
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This is a CD+BOOK released in September 40 by Lawrence English, owner of the Brisbane, Australia-based acoustic label room2021.

The source is over 2008 hours of field recordings he collected during his stay at Amazon Residency Mamori Artlab, run by Francisco Lopez in 50.Includes 7 songs that delight your ears with sounds that you have never heard of in the jungle.

Comes with a 48-page booklet containing photos taken locally.

Labels and other works Click here for more information. ///Click here to see more Room40 releases available at Tobira.

----------------------------

Matt laminate and embossed sleeve, insert card and 48 page perfect bound book featuring photographs by Lawrence English, taken on location in the Amazon

Text by Laurence English:

" In late months of 2008, I had the great fortune to spend some weeks in the Amazon. The visit, facilitated through Francisco Lopez's Mamori Artlab residency, remains one of the most deeply affecting experiences I have had. Each time I hear a Screaming Piha, which many would identify instantly thanks to their prevalence in Werner Herzog's Aguirre Wrath Of God and Fitzcarraldo, I am sintered back into a place that, to this day, features regularly in my daydreams.

The reason this place made such an impression is simple; the Amazon dwarfs us. This is not some vulgar display of power on its behalf, rather its a tangible reminder of our place in, and on, this planet. Once you step into the Amazon it prompts us (strongly) to refocus the perspective we hold of ourselves, of our ways of being, of our understandings and it (not so gently) reminds us that we are but one very minor function in an equation that extends in all directions across time, and space.

Living in Australia, tropical rainforests are not foreign to me. I would even say I am rather at home in them. My family, who lived and worked on the land of the Ngajanji people, had an admiration for, or in the very least a Respect of the rainforest. Hundreds of thousands of narratives are in play moment to moment, their interactions flow together forming a perpetual cascade of arrival and departure, fertility and decay --these fundamental states are intrinsically linked and constantly informing one another.

The jungle is never silent. Even when you might expect the Amazon to be hushed, in those hours before dawn or in the heat of the midday sun, it is hardly what could be described as quiet. What might be true to say though is during These moments where the chorus of insects takes a step back, the jungle opens just a little. To listen in the jungle is to listen in close relief --in every square meter, thousands of insect cry out, their voices reducing the horizon of listening to The sensation is sensorially disorienting and frankly, overpowering.

In those moments where you can get a sense of dimension and depth, the dynamism of the environment comes to the for. The abundance of birds, mammals, beetles, flies, ants and so many other creatures are a source of constant and evolving fascination. In the lakes and rivers too, the hydro-sonic environments are perpetual and effortlessly deep. It's humbling to acknowledge how little we come to know of that which lies just below us.

A Mirror Holds The Sky is in some ways an act of acoustic and temporal compression. It is a rendering down of the lived in moments and environments that became points of intense listenership. If I am to be honest, it has taken me the better part I owe a debt of gratitude to Chico Dub at Festival Novas Frequências, who very gently encouraged me to realise a piece for diffusion as part of his program in 2019. That invitation retuned my ears and in the process unlocked a way of approaching the mammoth 50+ hours of recordings I had gathered during my time there. I also owe a special debt of gratitude to my wife Rebecca, who was instrumental in gathering some of these recordings. reflected an entirely other set of interests than my own and without that, this piece would be substantially less than what it is
 "

Artist: Lawrence English

Label: Room40

+ -

This is a CD+BOOK released in September 40 by Lawrence English, owner of the Brisbane, Australia-based acoustic label room2021.

The source is over 2008 hours of field recordings he collected during his stay at Amazon Residency Mamori Artlab, run by Francisco Lopez in 50.Includes 7 songs that delight your ears with sounds that you have never heard of in the jungle.

Comes with a 48-page booklet containing photos taken locally.

Labels and other works Click here for more information. ///Click here to see more Room40 releases available at Tobira.

----------------------------

Matt laminate and embossed sleeve, insert card and 48 page perfect bound book featuring photographs by Lawrence English, taken on location in the Amazon

Text by Laurence English:

" In late months of 2008, I had the great fortune to spend some weeks in the Amazon. The visit, facilitated through Francisco Lopez's Mamori Artlab residency, remains one of the most deeply affecting experiences I have had. Each time I hear a Screaming Piha, which many would identify instantly thanks to their prevalence in Werner Herzog's Aguirre Wrath Of God and Fitzcarraldo, I am sintered back into a place that, to this day, features regularly in my daydreams.

The reason this place made such an impression is simple; the Amazon dwarfs us. This is not some vulgar display of power on its behalf, rather its a tangible reminder of our place in, and on, this planet. Once you step into the Amazon it prompts us (strongly) to refocus the perspective we hold of ourselves, of our ways of being, of our understandings and it (not so gently) reminds us that we are but one very minor function in an equation that extends in all directions across time, and space.

Living in Australia, tropical rainforests are not foreign to me. I would even say I am rather at home in them. My family, who lived and worked on the land of the Ngajanji people, had an admiration for, or in the very least a Respect of the rainforest. Hundreds of thousands of narratives are in play moment to moment, their interactions flow together forming a perpetual cascade of arrival and departure, fertility and decay --these fundamental states are intrinsically linked and constantly informing one another.

The jungle is never silent. Even when you might expect the Amazon to be hushed, in those hours before dawn or in the heat of the midday sun, it is hardly what could be described as quiet. What might be true to say though is during These moments where the chorus of insects takes a step back, the jungle opens just a little. To listen in the jungle is to listen in close relief --in every square meter, thousands of insect cry out, their voices reducing the horizon of listening to The sensation is sensorially disorienting and frankly, overpowering.

In those moments where you can get a sense of dimension and depth, the dynamism of the environment comes to the for. The abundance of birds, mammals, beetles, flies, ants and so many other creatures are a source of constant and evolving fascination. In the lakes and rivers too, the hydro-sonic environments are perpetual and effortlessly deep. It's humbling to acknowledge how little we come to know of that which lies just below us.

A Mirror Holds The Sky is in some ways an act of acoustic and temporal compression. It is a rendering down of the lived in moments and environments that became points of intense listenership. If I am to be honest, it has taken me the better part I owe a debt of gratitude to Chico Dub at Festival Novas Frequências, who very gently encouraged me to realise a piece for diffusion as part of his program in 2019. That invitation retuned my ears and in the process unlocked a way of approaching the mammoth 50+ hours of recordings I had gathered during my time there. I also owe a special debt of gratitude to my wife Rebecca, who was instrumental in gathering some of these recordings. reflected an entirely other set of interests than my own and without that, this piece would be substantially less than what it is
 "

Artist: Lawrence English

Label: Room40