In partnership with Soundwalk Collective, Reethaus is pleased to present a 6-hour sound installation created from recordings by Francisco López. Sonic Creatures [Amazon Rainforest] follows an archetypal day in the Amazon — from dawn through morning, afternoon, dusk, and night.
Working as a field biologist in rainforest research stations, López found himself immersed in highly dense and complex sonic environments. These sound experiences seeped into him as a transformative force, shifting his interest in the rainforest away from study for the purpose of description, and towards a listening and sound practice that is vividly philosophical.
The forces of darkness and solitude that López encountered in the rainforest led the artist down a phenomenological and ontological rabbit hole. “Ever since the rainforests, my sound work has been fundamentally shaped by these ongoing and still sought-after experiences. Their transformative impact is something that really takes time and demands dedication — two currencies that are anathema to the present zeitgeist of accelerated impatience and superficial mega-representation.”
In Sonic Creatures [Amazon Rainforest] , López presents a composition arranged from these formative jungles of sound, revealing a sonic reality replete with oscillating presences as real as any frog, bird or tree. Invisible, ephemeral, only apparently immaterial and still unnamed, these sonic creatures have their own means of prolific reproduction.
Sonic Creatures [Amazon Rainforest] was composed from original recordings made by the artist between 2005 and 2015 in Mamori Lake (Amazonas State, Brazil), Pacaya-Samiria Reserve (Yanayacu River, Peru), Madidi National Park (Bolivia), and Amboró National Park (Bolivia) and has been spatialized for the 360-degree soundspace of the Reethaus.