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In the fall of 2020, when a conservationist and a film music supervisor both came to the conclusion that “the world needs more birdsong,” the community-driven “For the Birds: The Birdsong Project” took root. The collaborators in question? Executive producer Rebecca Reagan, whose work includes the regenerative soil advocacy initiative Kiss the Ground and the holistic agriculture organization Amazon Healing, and curator and producer Randall Poster, whose film scores include those of Carol, Skyfall, several Wes Anderson movies, and Boardwalk Empire, the latter of which earned him a Grammy Award. For The Birdsong Project, the two longtime friends bridged their wheelhouses and invited musicians and artists across disciplines to create musical or poetic pieces honoring the winged creatures. The endeavor resists ordinary definition, beckoning listeners to take in the simultaneously elemental and majestic nature of birdsong. In this 172 piece (and ever-growing) collection, the voices and artistic impulses of humans merge with those of birds.
Created in collaboration with the National Audubon Society, a non-profit dedicated to the conservation of birds and their habitats, the project informs of the challenges bird populations around the world face, and highlights the symbolic and sentimental potential of their music. All proceeds go to the Audubon Society. As the project has expanded, the founders have also welcomed a wave of visual creators to make the tracks’ music videos, and organized an ongoing exhibition of birdhouses—currently on view at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden through the end of October—by various artists, designers, and architects, including Suchi Reddy, SO–IL, and Tatiana Bilbao Estudio.
The Slowdown asked Reagan and Poster to make a playlist of their favorite avian-toned music, and recently spoke to them about their selections. Here, they share fond memories of and interesting tidbits about these birdsong-imbued tracks.
Listen to their “For the Birds Playlist” on Spotify.
“Tori No Uta,” Aska Matsumiya
Poster: “Aska is a film composer and one of the earliest contributors to the project—super enthusiastic. She basically recorded some birds and put [the audio] through whatever synthesis she contrived. She posted somewhere that she loves listening to it, but that it drives her cat crazy. And when we first started getting songs and playing them, I really felt like the birds were coming to my house to listen.”
“So the Bluebirds and the Blackbirds Got Together” by Loudon Wainwright III
Poster: “I had made a record with Loudon a few years ago and did a repertoire from the roaring twenties and thirties. This is a piece that was a point of reference for me, in terms of what The Birdsong Project could be. Probably sixty percent of the pieces incorporate birdsong. For instance, Mary Lattimore creates a conversation between birds. The other twenty percent, like this one, are songs about birds.”
“Cuckoo Bird” by The Haden Triplets
Poster: “This notion of triplets, the sisters singing together, I thought was sort of reminiscent of a bird family. The harmonies that siblings can do are unlike any others. We couldn't have imagined anything more delightful than the cuckoo bird.”
Reagan: “One of the most charming and important references for me, when I think about the cuckoo birds, is the reference to time and the cuckoo clock. When we think about the world at large and all of the conversations we're having about climate change, time is of the essence. I think the cuckoo bird is a beautiful reminder that, for all of us, the time to activate is now.”
“Flamingos Fly” by Van Morrison
Poster: “I think flamingos are my favorite bird. There’s that great song, ‘Pretty Flamingo.’ I landed on Van Morrison's ‘Flamingos Fly,’ which was sort of a comeback record. The late Dr. John produced the record with Van Morrison. Truly the most disappointing thing in my life professionally was that I never got to make a record with Dr. John.
Flamingos’ color comes from their environment and diet. It’s pretty amazing, the blending of the world.”
“Fly Robin Fly” by Silver Convention
Poster: “I lived as a teenager through the disco era and I have to say, I shook it like a bird in a bird bath.”
Reagan: “Yeah, there’s a fun visceral connection to this one.”
“In the Gale” by Yo-Yo Ma
Poster: “We found out that, contemporaneously, Yo-Yo Ma had birds and birdsong on his mind, and he commissioned a woman named Anna Klein to write a piece. He recorded it in a forest and filmed it. On Friday, June 24, we released the video of Yo-Yo Ma playing. Again, we were tapping into something that was happening.”
Reagan: “What I loved about that was just how deeply immersive it was. I hate to use the word ‘epic.’ It’s of this world, but [also] of another. It certainly touched a lot of people.”
“And Your Bird Can Sing” by Elvis Costello
Reagan: “This track blows me away. It has so much in one piece of music. You get to the middle part around two minutes, and it’s like a whole other song.”
Poster: “Elvis turned this around in, like, a week: ‘I love it. I'm gonna do it. Get ready for it.’ Another inspiration for us was Yoko Ono. We're lucky enough to have a piece of hers in the collection, a song which hasn’t come out yet. So somehow, Elvis doing the Beatles, John Lennon, [then] Yoko, was very positive and affirming.”
“Bird of Cuzco” by Nina Nastasia
Reagan: “This references and mimics the birds of Peru and migration. It’s a reminder that one part is not separate from the rest. The world ecosystem influences itself. I was discussing birds and agriculture with friends recently for Amazon Healing, with a farmer in Ecuador. A friend who knew a lot about holistic systems said, ‘Did you know that what you guys are doing in Ecuador is causing the black swift’s extinction in Banff, Canada?’ We need to move away from polarity thinking and into holistic thinking that brings us all together.”
“Watching You Without Me” by Kate Bush
Reagan: “The use of seagull song is very minimal, but the melodic elements mimic birds. It’s a really touching track. Early on, Randall and I were talking about how much birdsong would be in the music. And I thought, ‘We need lots of it interwoven in the tracks, because we need more of that in the world.’ We need this to be a musical movement that artists beyond this project are creating from.
“Someone that I wanted to include in this playlist who doesn’t have this track up yet on Spotify is a beautiful artist named Jahnavi Harrison. She posted on her Instagram a gorgeous song with nightingales where she had a lot of birds woven into the music. Her whole vibe is like our project, that energy. It’s more service-oriented, just beautifully connected art. When I see an incredible artist such as Jahnavi, who is not on our birdsong project, but who is also creating birdsong, I am encouraged that this musical movement and category may potentially continue to spiral and grow large.”
