Ting Qiu – Listening To Autumn
Lars Fredriksson
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“the disc seems to attach itself directly to the nervous system from first listen”
More than 100 recorded hours have been destilled into a 79 minutes long soundscape of meditative, minimalistic and organic music that you can keep on a low volume for a barely audible distant sound of crickets surrounding your habitat. Or you can turn it up for the cricket concerto that demands total awareness and attention, demanding the listeners all encompassing presence.
16 page booklet with photos and info about crickets.
John Kuhlman, Global Rhythm:
This is a wonderfully understated disc of Chinese cricket songs, lovingly edited down from hundreds of hours of tapes by cricketmeister Lars Fredriksson, and a real comfort to those of us still unsettled by recent trends in pop. These sounds will be familiar territory for many people the gentle mechanical stridulations of the male cricket, rhythmically rubbing his wings together in a musical search for love are so much a part of a Midwestern upbringing that the disc seems to attach itself directly to the nervous system from first listen. Turn up the volume a little bit and the subtleties of the music appear, with different species in ensembles of varying sizes moving almost imperceptibly in and out of sync with each other, creating a seamless, transparent grid of gentle love-clicking, as each cricket tries to make his own voice heard without disturbing the harmony of the group. Fascinating stuff.
The Fredriksson family (crickets included)
Tom Sekowski, Nemesis:
With so few recordings that feature sounds of insects, “Ting Qiu” deserves our undivided attention. Composer/conductor Lars Fredriksson [aka Mr. Fung Liao] has studied in great detail life of the crickets since the late 70’s. Having spent many years in China, he has bred crickets and organized actual live performances that featured them in lead starring roles. Considering the lifespan of a cricket is just under a year, new crickets would have to be collected and trained each year for Fredriksson’s orchestras. In the liner notes to this CD, Fredriksson gives some pertinent facts about his orchestra members, “Crickets produce sound by rubbing their jagged wing covers, called tegmina, each with a sound-producing membrane, together. This rubbing, called stridulation, goes on for hours, and is only interrupted when the cricket is startled or changes its position in order to be heard better. The cricket’s tympanic organs can vibrate with up to 20,000 cycles per second, well beyond the sensitivity of the human ear, and recent research has also shown that even the fluid in the veins of the wings has an amplifying capacity.” He goes on to point out that only the male crickets produce sounds to attract females, in order to procreate. Each species of crickets has its own, unique song. According to the composer, for this CD he chose groups of crickets that when singing in unison would produce tone interference and would have complex rhythms. Sounds would seem to go in and out of synchronization. Fredriksson learned how to tune his crickets by deciding on what they were fed, by controlling the ambient temperature, and by varying the groups of crickets that were placed in the same proximity. Resulting music is mesmerizing, as one hears the crickets in a variety of settings. They’re playing their songs in a subtle, drill-like fashion on “Invocation”, which then sees them be joined by another variety of crickets that adds variations on tone. “Glowing Dusk” features the crickets singing in perfect harmony, though a few voices often fall in and out of sync. The album ends with a three-part “Parting” suite, where one hears the crickets’ voices to be more distant; more sparse. This is one of those CDs that I can leave playing for hours on end and not be bored once. Each time around, new delicate subtleties appear out of nowhere. To be used as stress relief on a pressure-filled day, “Ting Qiu” is one of the most haunting, most nature intensive albums I’ve heard in a long time. Essential.
Tracks
1 Invocation – Invocation (1:07) 2 Invocation – Three Harmonious Bells (2:31) 3 Invocation – Youthful Folly (2:44) 4 Prologos – Conference Of The Crickets (3:49) 5 Prologos – Decollage (3:10) 6 Prologos – Drifting On Clouds (4:06) 7 Prologos – Dense Foiliage (2:11) 8 Prologos – Towards Dusk Slowly (0:41) 9 Listening To Autumn – Glowing Dusk (11:39) 10 Listening To Autumn – Into Darkness (5:26) 11 Autumn Night – Night Colours (3:45) 12 Autumn Night – Pitch Black (5:10) 13 Autumn Night – Penetrating The Cliff (12:24) 14 Autumn Night – Oblivion (5:00) 15 Autumn Night – Cricket Rules (4:06) 16 Autumn Night – Truth Heard (4:58) 17 Parting – Treading High (1:16) 18 Parting – Morning Dew (1:21) 19 Parting – Complete Part (3:52)
Musicians
Lars Fredriksson & The Chinese Crickets Rosary Ensemble of 108 chinese crickets of various species:
The crickets in these recordings are mostly from Anhui, Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces. Only a few, but very significant ones, are from the Beijing region.
The most prominent are the Bamboo Bells 竹鈴 (Oecanthus sinensis) and the Purple Bamboo Bells 紫竹鈴 (Oecanthus longicauda), heard here in many different constellations and in various numbers. They synchronize their singing, and it is very impressive to hear a large group of Bamboo Bells come in and out of perfectly joined stridulation.
The Ink Bells 墨鈴 (Homeoxipha lycoides) are more discreet, but also the most versatile. They have a larger repertoire than most other crickets and they also play differently depend- ing on the environment and time of day.
The Large Yellow Bells 大黃鈴 (Anaxipha sp. n) are probably the most indefatiguable of all cricket musicians, singing no matter if it is dusk or dawn, night or broad daylight. Its only requirements seem to be peaceful sur- roundings and some moist fruit to nibble at.
The Small Yellow Bells 小黃鈴 (Anaxipha pallidula) has a softer sound and does not sing for such long continuous periods as the Large Yellow Bell, but shows some more variety in its stridulations.
The Gold Bell 金鈴 (Svistella bifasciata) has a very high pitch, and is a distinct and clear addition to the overall soundshape of the group. It adds a certain crispness and struck crystal-glass tone quality.
Probably the most powerful singer of all, the Heavenly Bell 天鈴 (Trujalia hibinonis – known as the Green Lute 綠琵琶 in Northern China) is unsurpassed in volume. There are two main kinds on these recordings, the “single mouth” and the “paired mouth”, with distinct differences in singing.
Finally, at least among those recorded here, we have the wonderful brilliance of the Horse Bell 馬鈴 (Homeogryllus japonica – in Northern China known as the Golden Bell 金鐘), a most amicable and peaceful cricket that prefers to sing with the female present..
More info
RELEASE DATE: NOVEMBER 1, 2006
HOW TO LISTEN (to this naturally minimalistic recording):
• As an ambient record of a possible soundscape in nature. Turn the volume down to resemble a barely audible distant sound of crickets surrounding your habitat.
• As a nature closeup adjust the knob to a slightly higher volume.
• As the cricket concerto that demands total awareness and attention, demanding all encompassing presence of the listener. Turn the volume up to normal for any classical com- position or free-jazz concert.
Interview with music samples from the concert (mp3 – 16 minutes).
Review from Global Rhythm, feb 2007.
CRICKETS ON THE WEB bolingo.org/cricket
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