“We believe that birds – no matter feather or flock – are precious and inspiring and fundamental to our world.” The Birdsong Project
“For the Birds: The Birdsong Project” is a compilation of over 200 artists to celebrate the music and happiness birds bring into all of our lives. This will be a limited edition twenty-album box set for collectors with 242 tracks of original music and bird-related poetry readings. The proceeds from sales will go to the protection of birds and their habitats through the National Audubon Society. The producer is Randall Poster, a Grammy Award-winning producer and music supervisor known for his longtime work with both Wes Anderson and Martin Scorsese. The entire vinyl set was made available last December for pre-order for $399.99. There will be five volumes in the collection, and all will be available for streaming through Spotify. The first one was made available to stream last May, 2022. Two more have been made available this summer.
The Birdsong Project is a community that came together through the shared goal of protecting bird life and enjoying the beauty and mysteries of birdsong. Human interactions alone are thought to kill more than 500 million birds each year in the United States alone. One in eight of the world’s bird species now are at risk of extinction according to a 2018 report.
A partial list of participants includes Yo-Yo Ma, Beck, Elvis Costello, Mark Ronson, Sean Penn, Yoko Ono, Bette Midler, Tilda Swinton, John Lithgow, Michael Keaton, and many, many more.
There is also a partnership with the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens for a multi-disciplinary exhibit and learning experience that will run from July 11 – October 23, 2022. In 2023 there will be an educational event at the Museum of Natural History in New York City as well as a Lotusland gala in Montecito, CA in September.
Volume One was released for streaming through Spotify May 25th, 2022
Volume Two was released for streaming June 24th, 2022
Volume 3 was released for streaming July 29th, 2022, and Volume 4 will be released September 30, 2022.
Other birdsong recordings:
“Let Nature Sing” is a mix of 24 chattering species of British birdsong. It was released in 2019 by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and lasts 2 minutes 32 seconds. It hit Britain’s Top 20 at number 18, becoming the first time a recording solely of birds had made the charts.
In February 2022, an album of 53 calls from threatened Australian birds put together by Anthony Albrecht, a cellist and nature enthusiast landed in the number 2 on the charts, beating out Taylor Swift. Songs of Disappearance was released by the Bowerbird Collective and BirdLife Australia by Australian cellist Anthony Albrecht. It was released with a university report that found that 1 in 6 Australian bird species are now threatened.
Robin Perkins, a DJ, composer, and producer, through his record label Shika Shika, paired dozens of musicians with the song of a threatened bird from their home countries and asked them to turn it into a song. In 2015 Perkins produced the first volume of this project called A Guide to the Birdsong of South America. Electronic music allowed the birdsongs to become part of the music. Perkins’ second project was A Guide to the Birdsong of Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. A third volume, A Guide to the Birdsong of Western Africa, was released in June, 2022.
All profits go to support specific organizations, including Birds Carribean.
Earlier ASE article on birds
https://www.asharpeye.com/birds-are-waiting-for-you-to-find-them/