Frogs, crickets, grasshoppers and cicadas - they are species we know first and foremost by their song. By the thousands, they are hidden in meadows, roadsides, on small banks; what we see is at most a ripple in the water or a movement in the grass. The chorus that tells us spring has begun is composed of countless lures. Males seducing a female with their own species-specific frequency. The more attentively we listen, the more we begin to hear. Not only do we distinguish species and patterns, we also hear how the voices in the chorus are changing, new species making themselves heard, others silently disappearing. Crickets and frogs, like birds, sing a song about the speed at which our climate is changing, about the state of our surface water, our soil, biodiversity and globalisation (in Amsterdam, the first song cicadas have already been spotted a few years back, hitchhiking along in the roots of plants from warmer regions). It is a song that is also about us. We listen, we seek access. From the lure of the animals, a composition for humans springs forth, temporarily.
Calling Songs is an investigation by Johannes Westendorp into the possibilities of making music live and on location with insect and amphibian choirs. To this end, he designs and makes a mobile sound system consisting of several small speakers, batteries, guitar pedals and modular synthesisers. Typical of insect choirs is the broad sound that can never be traced to one sound source, the speaker setup tries to approach this quality.
This research gives direction to a new project in which Swarm will search for insect and amphibian biotopes to give concerts together. Depending on the place and the season, we accompany the green frog, the field cricket or the crackling cicada.
