Yesterday I had a unique hiking experience. A music student from a local university composed a hour-long piece of music with more than 8 instruments. The music was based on the noises of different creatures in the wild as recorded by local wildlife researchers. So a different instrument was assigned to each noise. Yesterday, several musicians were placed in the valley of this hiking trail where the noises had originally occurred but that were now replaced with the sounds of their instruments. While this occurred, a small group of us hiked the trail.

It really did feel like the musicians were wild animals occasionally making noise in the wild. It was also an interesting experiment in keeping time with other musicians at great distances and playing off of each other. (There was an element of improvisation as well.) It ended in a culmination of them playing together, like the forest coming alive.

I wouldn’t buy the album, but I loved the wackiness and uniqueness of the experience and I feel like we need more of this in the world.


EDIT: Adding a video sample.