Wolf Soundscapes is a work recorded in Portugal that stemmed from a larger project with the German field recordist and sound artist Nils Mosh.
Many provocative thoughts and reflections came from this alone, but the key idea comes from him and we have developed it together since around 2019.
It focuses on the Wolf as a binary figure in the western world: while the presence of this animal has been shown to be fundamental for a healthy habitat, there is a lot of controversy and sentiment about wolves being close to farmed areas. This is now a very specific and truly complicated issue in some regions of Germany, where all of our recordings would, in principle, take place. Due to all the restrictions with the pandemic, we went forward with the idea of each of us starting to work in their own location. We found out about the Iberian Wolf Rehabilitation Centre where I volunteered for 12 days and recorded extensively. This was under a volunteer program, so I had to prepare food, feed the wolves and observe them, paired with recording any time it was possible. The volunteer program included a talk about the general history of the wolf around the world and the relationship that humans established with them based on their spiritual beliefs. Sadly, in regions with a predominant Christian culture / tradition, the wolf has been regarded as an ‘evil’ creature and have been hunted down to near extinction in the 20th century. There is an instigated fear that comes before any attempt of comprehension; perhaps most of us tend to avoid situations that incite that fear: whatever its origins, we don’t want to face the unknown. Leaving aside possible political agendas in the context of the duality mentioned above, it’s obvious that the fear of the unknown is not only applied to wolves, or even solely to the animal kingdom. So through the figure of the wolf, and by using it partially as a metaphor, with this work we are also discussing the rejection of “strangers” by people.

Wolf Soundcapes is a combination of the discovery process and wonder of this hilly forest, the first contact with such sophisticated animals as well as the mutual habituation between them and me.
Since I am very driven by sensorial impressions and those can appear reconstructed in interesting shapes in states of being half a sleep, I let my constant nightmares, the afterwards fuzziness and confusion to remain with me on the senses in which I remember they manifested. Then, I suppose that, very naturally and absolutely influenced by the story of the red Riding Hood (in fact my grandmother called me a few days in to actually check if I haven’t been eaten!) – which always triggered in me a vivid imagery -, I thought that the idea of a child-like character, someone that has already built some ideas based on her worldview but still curious and open enough to build her own, moving between the oneiric and the tangible of her own reality experience. It’s this experience that she dwells in to expand and meet what she hears in her dreams. This comes in time and motivates her to explore the forest to the confines she was not supposed to go into. At the same time, the wolves are somewhat aware of her ability to step out of the dictated rules, and so they initiate a process of socialisation between them and her.

This is why the album starts with a very distant and solitary howl and goes over a third of its length with soundscapes of the forest that always translate her emotional state and thought process, with 2 day/night cycles, sometimes leaving a peeking hole for some subtle movement from the wolves. After they reveal themselves to her openly as she explores deeper, which comes with long and loud howling, she is able to get more closely, to the point where she observes them eating and playing and a mutual understanding starts to unfold.

Before I got there I really didn’t know what sort of sounds I would find or what other animals exist there and it turned out to be a powerful and nurturing experience.

(text adapted from four questions | located sound the act and art of listening to located sound, curated by Jez riley French)

credits

self-released in November 28, 2020

all sounds recorded, edited and mixed by Melissa Pons

cover art by Pedro Peres

license

all rights reserved

All tracks are registered and meant for private use only. Any other use requires permission and a license.