Rock legend, naturalist team up to turn field recordings of animals into music
In a Nutshell
Stewart Copeland and wildlife recordist Martyn Stewart created the album *Wild Concerto* by transforming Stewart's 100,000 field recordings of animals—including extinct and endangered species—into orchestral music at Abbey Road Studios. The project pairs specific animal sounds with instruments, like Arctic wolves with trombone and the screaming pia bird with orchestral arrangements, to reach new audiences with an environmental message. Stewart, who is battling cancer, sees the work as a way to preserve these recordings and raise awareness about species loss.
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Stewart Copeland, drummer from The Police with Andy Summers and Sting, has teamed up with naturalist Martyn Stewart for an album called Wild Concerto. The album features animal sounds including hyenas, owls, and howler monkeys, based on Stewart's collection of nearly 100,000 audio recordings of wildlife. Some species featured are now extinct or endangered, making the album both a music project and environmental manifesto.
The recording session takes place at Abbey Road Studios, where Copeland and Stewart work with an orchestra to transform animal recordings into a concerto. The animals featured include wrens, bears, frogs, kookaburras, and wombat pigeons. Copeland wrote the music while Stewart provided the raw field recordings.
Martyn Stewart has spent decades collecting approximately 100,000 recordings of wild animals, requiring Copeland to review 30,000 hours of field recordings. The screaming pia bird was selected for orchestral treatment, with its raw sounds dictating the choice of instruments. Arctic wolves were paired with trombone, transforming their howls into what Copeland describes as becoming "Pavarotti" when combined with orchestral instruments.
As one-third of The Police, Copeland helped the band sell more than 75 million records. The group disbanded in 1986. Copeland's transition to composition began when Francis Coppola hired him to score the film Rumble Fish, recognizing Copeland's rhythmic expertise despite his lack of formal film scoring experience.
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