Press Release
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THE EARTH WHERE WE MEET
Catalogue Number: BCM100043
Release Date: July 11th 2025
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This collection of ambient, evolving soundscapes connects listeners within an immersive acoustic experience routed in ecology and the changing nature of the earth in relation to human existence.
At a time of ecological grief and desperation, the album offers solace in a new sense of connection between diverse forms of human and non-human spheres of life.
THE EARTH WHERE WE MEET
Rachel Beckles Willson and Melisa Yıldırım
1. A dream of lost oceans | Kayıp okyanusların rüyası
2. Once upon a time, beyond the glacial plane | Bir zamanlar, buzul düzlemin ötesinde
3. Evaporating cosmos | Buharlaşan kozmoz
4. A dream left in water | Suya anlatılan rüya
5. The golden sun rises | Altın Güneş doğuyor
6. Over the great still lake | Büyük durgun gölün üzerinde
7. Aura of the forest | Orman aurası
8. This breathing earth | Nefes alan yeryüzü
At a time of ecological grief and desperation, the album offers solace in a new sense of connection between diverse forms of human and non-human spheres of life.
1. A dream of lost oceans
A bittersweet dream: our parched earth refills with lost waters, which flow gently to lap between the coastlines. Could it happen? The kamancha weaves a lyrical melody, as if to will a dream into reality before passing into mist, enveloped in distant ethereal voices and echoes.
2. Once upon a time, beyond the glacial plane
A story without words, growing slowly from ice sheets to refracted flashes of light, splinters and shimmering messages. While the saxophone pads are earthbound, extending steadily into the distance, pizzicato kamancha and oud, and glissandi on whalophone conjure up the faster dynamism of air and light.
3. Evaporating cosmos (Buharlaşan kozmoz)
We’re in a hot, hot, place. Even our instruments are popping! What surreal soundscapes emerge when two beings meet one another midair, each swept up in currents of wind, smoke and fire?
4. A dream left in water (Suya anlatılan rüya)
The dream is strange, too big and too frightening to relate. Suya anlatılan rüya! Tell the water your dream!
5. The golden sun rises (Altın güneş doğuyor )
A duet bridging the divide between reedy brass and bowed strings. Two instrumental lines weave between one another, as rays of sunlight emerge from behind the hills, and bathe the valley in light.
6. Over the great still lake
Hovering in the air above a great lake, a long saxophone melody narrates, wordlessly, a journey from shimmering stillness to turbulent eddies, swirls and bubbles. The reflections are darker on the other side of the lake, water has its secrets.
7. Aura of the forest
Behind every tree and flower, another wonder to be seen and heard. And the birds! Giving themselves over to the aura of the forest, oud and kamancha are swept into the vibrancy of the forest, as if returning home.
8. This breathing earth
Beneath our walking feet lie entangled communities of roots, and the homes of over a million non-human species. In this final track processed oud and kamancha sounds pay hommage to the enormity, multiplicity, and generosity of what lies beneath us.
This collection of ambient, evolving soundscapes connects listeners within an immersive acoustic experience routed in ecology and the changing nature of the earth in relation to human existence.
In this album two musicians reach out beyond their individual selves to meditate on their smallness within enormity of the planet and galaxy. They nurture a creative space for composition that combines field recordings, voices, audio processing and multiple instruments – kamancha, oud, saxophone and whalophone. Listening together and working with the sonic elements of the natural environment, they discover meeting points between their contrasting sound worlds, and their shared sense of the beautiful but damaged world in which we live.
At a time of ecological grief and desperation, the album offers solace in a new sense of connection between diverse forms of human and non-human spheres of life.
Melisa Yıldırım is a performer of the Anatolian kamancha who was born in Istanbul. As an improviser and composer she is dedicated to disseminating existing repertoires for her instrument, and developing new futures for it through solo experimentation and international collaboration. She is interested in deep listening practices and listening meditation.
Rachel Beckles Willson is a composer, multi-instrumentalist, producer and writer, born in London to a family with buried Irish roots. As composer she likes to reach beyond what she knows and understands, combining her love of harmony gleaned through an earlier life as a classical pianist with more recently-discovered makam traditions and digital media.
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