By rubbing specialized body parts together, insects are able to sing their song and communicate with others of their species, most likely to rub other specialized body parts together. This is stridulation, and while the word may be new to some, the sounds produced in this manner would be recognised by almost all. Robert Schwarz was inspired by this method of communication and set about resynthesizing these calls and songs for Stridulations 1-14. Continuing with his work on previous releases, Schwarz further investigates the "spatio-temporal sonic patterns" of these stridulations, most notably in "swarm behavior and synchrony." Entomological inspiration is strong in experimental synthesis, and Schwarz utilizes natural sounds from field recordings along with created electronic sounds with great effect.
As one would correctly guess from the title, Stridulations 1-14 is fourteen tracks based on Robert Schwarz's interpretations, reworkings, and imaginations of these insect communications. As the stridulations themselves are created by rough, specialized body parts rubbing together, their sound is somewhat grating to the human ear, although their ubiquitousness has moved these droning missives to the background. Eschewing the easy notion to make Stridulations harsh and grating, Schwarz focuses more on the ebb and flow of the oscillations, often adding machine synthesis on top (or replacing) in an attempt to create his own, electronic stridulating calls. The bleeps and bloops feel very alien when played in contrast to the buzzes that are closer to the actual noises (and in many cases are the actual noises), but add a nice dynamic to the audio, placing the synthesized sounds higher and clearer. Oddly, the sounds that may have been designed with a nice auditory quality in mind sound less inviting than the buzzing drone of arthropod acoustics. Over the course of the fourteen pieces, Schwarz gives the listener many different approaches, patterns, and amounts of layers, which reinforces the vast number of insect species that use this method of communication. Obviously that could never be matched, but fourteen is a good amount and stops short of being tiresome and alienating. While the entomological quotient is clear and pops out right away, one is soon drawn into the patterns and changing sounds that emerge. Following the swirls and oscillations, one feels like an insect linguist trying to decipher what could be going on in each track of Stridulations. There are a number of quiet parts and some nicely loud sections, but overall, the album is played more for intrigue and discovery, so it nicely sticks to middle ground, keeping the sounds interesting, the layers tight, and the runtimes reined in.
The insect world is large beyond imagining, and we get sonic insight into their tiny world as soon as we step outside of the house. While we communicate by buzzing our vocal cords, they rub their body parts together to create these songs that carry across distances that their tiny bodies would take days to traverse. Overlooked by many, Robert Schwarz takes inspiration from this, and furthers his work creating sonic art from what seems trivial and commonplace.
Stridulations 1-14 is an artistic investigation into the auditory world of arthropod communication reworked and reimagined to make more sense to a human audience. Far more listenable than the description lets on,
Stridulations allows the listener to drift into patterns and investigate the basis of communication in general. For
more
