BIRDSONGS. The Making Of

BIRDSONGS is a full-length violin concerto that revolves around the theme of birdsong.

It is a musical exploration of nature and a statement about the relationship between humans and the natural world.

Karen Gomyo (solo violin) and Arash Safaian (composer) give us a brief insight into their approach to this project.

Todd Schulz, creative director an initiator of BIRDSONGS:

Some years ago, I traded my city apartment for a house in the countryside. It’s located in a small village southeast of Berlin, with a large garden and directly bordering a forest

What struck me on the very first day was that I had landed in a kind of community—one that entertained me every morning with a grand orchestra of birdsong. At first, it sounded like a chaotic jumble of songs and calls from countless different voices.

Gradually, I began to recognize more structure and order within this rich chorus and learned to distinguish between the different bird species. An app also helped me to identify the species corresponding to each sound. Over the course of a year, I encountered more than a hundred bird species living here or stopping by during their migration.

Again and again, fascinated by this powerful orchestra, I began to wonder how this daily, recurring, and beautiful soundtrack might be archived—or, taking the idea further, transcribed into a language we humans understand: translating the music of birds into the music of humans, and in doing so, making my very personal experience accessible to others.

I wrote to my good friend Arash, a highly respected composer of classical music, and asked him whether it would be possible, in principle, to translate the songs of different birds into musical notation and perhaps harmonize them. Essentially, to compose a new orchestral work from an existing one—using the tools of classical music.

Arash’s reply didn’t take long, and the very next morning we were sitting together in my garden, listening to the birds and it quickly became clear that a new shared project had just begun.

Now a couple of years later, with the participation of world class violinist "Karen Gomyo" and legendary orchestra "The Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen", our project BIRDSONGS will be released as Stream, CD and Vinyl on May, 8th with Platoon/Apple Music.