Category Archives: nature

Amazing Discovery!! When Slowed Down to a Human-Like Time Frequency Crickets Begin to Sound Like a Choir of Angels !

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This is the most amazing thing I’ve ever heard.

https://soundcloud.com/acornavi/robert-wilson-crickets-audio (Audio of the Crickets)

This is the sound of Crickets chirping.  It is two tracks played over each other.  The first is the sound of the crickets at regular speed, the second is the sound of the crickets slowed down to the equivalent of a human life-span.  Crickets have a very short life span and therefore vibrate at a much higher frequency.  Slow their vibration down to a human level of vibration and they’re famous, high-pitched chirps begin to sound like a literal choir of angels.

The piece was recorded by composer Jim Wilson and is unmanipulated (save for the obvious slow down in tempo.)

Here is a quote from a Tom Waits interview saying the following…

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“Q: Most interesting recording you own?

A: It’s a mysteriously beautiful recording from, I am told, Robbie Robertson’s label. It’s of crickets. That’s right, crickets. The first time I heard it… I swore I was listening to the Vienna Boys Choir, or the Mormon Tabernacle choir. It has a four-part harmony. It is a swaying choral panorama. Then a voice comes in on the tape and says, “What you are listening to is the sound of crickets. The only thing that has been manipulated is that they slowed down the tape.” No effects have been added of any kind, except that they changed the speed of the tape. The sound is so haunting. I played it for Charlie Musselwhite, and he looked at me as if I pulled a Leprechaun out of my pocket.”

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“I had these messages saying that Robbie Robertson said to get in touch with me. So we went in studio. He said, `I want you to do whatever you feel like. And, now, these are crickets.’ So I thought, oh, my goodness. I’m to accompany crickets, see?

And when I heard them, I was so ashamed of myself, I was so humbled, because I had not given them enough respect. Jim Wilson recorded crickets in his back yard, and he brought it into the studio and went ahead and lowered the pitch and lowered the pitch and lowered the pitch. And they sound exactly like a well-trained church choir to me. And not only that, but it sounded to me like they were singing in the eight-tone scale. And so what–they started low, and then there was something like I would call, in musical terms, an interlude; and then another chorus part; and then an interval and another chorus. They kept going higher and higher.

They were saying cricket words. I kept thinking, `Oh, I almost can understand them. It’s a nice, mellow tone. And they never went off pitch until one of the interludes, where they went real crazy and they got back on again to where they were. And I know that people do not know that they’re listening to crickets unless they’re told that that’s what that is.”

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This recording, if accurate, is truly amazing.  The revelation that insects could, at various pitch levels, imitate powerful symphonic works, brings rise to many important questions in regards to the vast, complex network binding nature and the universe.  

There is still much unknown about the physics of sound and the vibrations of nature but more needs to be explored and addressed.  I commend Jim Wilson for his unique contribution to the musical world, perhaps other composers will look into this further.  

There are truly angels among us.

-B

Click for audio of Crickets

**P.S – upon listening to this for the last half an hour I can say that this is really powerful stuff.  Extremely healing, very calming and meditative.  Very hard to stop listening.

 

 

The Power of Birds

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It’s a sound we take for granted – the bird call.  A seemingly mundane and detached part our world, bird calls (or songs) could actually be the answer to an extraordinary question… Are we alone in the universe?

It is understood that almost all, if not all, animals communicate in some form or another but the depth of their communication is still largely unknown.  Let’s take birds for example…

We are all accustomed to birdcalls.  City dwellers accustom their ears to the pigeons and crows, subburians wake up to the calls of bluejays and hummingbirds and in the forest, a symphony of sounds some short (the owl), some percussion (the woodpecker) and some melodic and (the common robin or the lark) ring out against the trees trunks.

Like humans, birds learn to communicate, from birth using the mechanics and vibrations granted to them by nature.  These typically take the form of a large air sacks, which then the bird, using its own individual technique, composes a song to convey a message.

And while their messages usually function as alerts, calls and courtships it is important to remember how little we know about the animal kingdom and what messages they may truly be communicating.

Just remember, that birds and their amazing acoustical abilities have shaped our own consciousness for thousands of years, including some of the great composers.

The scales, trills and runs found in Mozart’s symphonies are easily found when listening to birds in nature.

The notion that birds have shaped and even guided classical music is not so far fetched when taking into consideration the degree to which these geniuses were immersed in nature.

Mozart would have awoke in the morning to an orchestra birds outside his window.  The sound would have been impossible for composers to escape thus many classical pieces utilizes the sound of the orchestra and piano to emulate birds.

Bird of Paradise performing a mating dance

There is a reason that their highly advanced communication intrigues us, it’s because we can recognize, as musicians, their aural capabilities and complexities.   Bird melodies and rhythms are far more sophisticated than our greatest composer’s compositions.  Even the complex rhythms found in modern dubstep, which utilizes very complex rhythmic patterns, don’t come close to that of a song bird.  It is proof that some creatures still have us beat in a realm we thought we had dominion over; music.

It is important to respect the other musical beings vibrating out in nature.  There are many more out there and each one, including us, uses there body in a physical manner so as to produce a signature vibration uniquely their own.  When a male bird courts a female he must put on the most beautiful dance and sing the most beautiful song and that is how he wins her heart, through creation and creativity.

Nature is a creative network and their is no lack of vibrational energy or creativity in the animal kingdom.  Birds inspire us with their amazing vibrational capabilities; Sing, shine and fly as their colors light up the forest.

Nothing brings a human joy like the sound of two birds echoing off the hallow tree trunks.  The path is never wrong when the birds are chirping.

So next time you hear a piccolo or a flute, thank the birds because it’s the sounds of nature that inspire us humans to emulate it’s voice through our musical instruments.

Thank you birds!

-B