Alexey Seliverstov: Bionic birdsong

艾列克谢·塞利维尔斯托夫:仿生鸟鸣

The Documentary Podcast

2025-10-13

26 分钟
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单集简介 ...

How fixed is the borderline between human music and the sounds of nature? That is a question that guides the work of Los Angeles-based composer Alexey Seliverstov. In this programme, Regan Morris follows Alexey’s creative process from recording the dawn chorus in the Santa Monica mountains, through the ingenious transformations of the field recordings to the finished multi-channel and multi-sensory installation for the Shelemay Sound Lab at Harvard University. There is more to Alexey’s music than first meets the ear: some of the ‘birds’ are actually the sounds of his own and his brother’s voices recorded when they were children and altered beyond recognition by Alexey’s sophisticated processing. Adding ear-prints of empty spaces to the sounds of chirping synthesisers, similar to the effect of repeated exposures on an old-fashioned camera film, draw us further into Alexey’s imaginary landscapes. Are these soundscapes artificial or still mostly natural? How does mixing the sounds of nature and sounds that we associate with humans, such as pianos, alter our idea of what music can be?
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  • The sun is just rising and I'm listening to the most wonderful sounds I've heard in a long while.

  • I've lived in Los Angeles for decades and I've come here to the Santa Monica Mountains many times to hike,

  • to bike,

  • to admire the wildflowers and the gorgeous green rolling hills but This is the first time that I've come here specifically to listen to the Don Chorus.

  • I'm Regan Morris, and in this documentary in the studio from the BBC World Service,

  • I'll be following the work of the LA-based composer Alexei Celiverstov.

  • Alexei transforms birdsong into compositions that blur the boundaries between the sounds of nature and human music.

  • Alexei, I can see or rather hear why you brought me here, but how did you find this place?

  • I found this place when I was looking for a spot without noises