During my stay in Malaysia I had the chance to dedicate some days to exploration. Walk around eating durian and listening to insects, birds and bats were the highlights.   These choirs happened everywhere inside and outside cities, at any time with infinite variations and interactions. To me they sounded both fascinating and dreadful.  Each of these experiences kicked my brain intensely, it felt like there was something else going on. It was not only hundreds of creatures expressing themselves in their (practically non-existent anymore) natural habitat, but also a primordial scream reaching the deepest sides of my viscera, asking something..

What is nature trying to tell us? Are we listening to or just ignoring it? Is it yelling its dissent about how we mistreat it or it ignores us as well? Are we still part of it, though we try our best to part with it? Are we learning anything from it? Do we care about it? Is it calling for help? Does it need us? Do we need it? 

These sounds are not a faithful presentation of what really happened, due to digital recording.  I am fully conscious all this is not useful and good to anything in particular. As much as, in my opinion, any other kind of entertainment in general. We are part of a sick, fake and fragile machine where people care superficially about too many things and constantly need distractions to survive the paradox of life. Even some recordings of environmental sounds can be appreciated or disliked, rather than just accepted for what they are and left where they belong to. 

Welcome to my pleasuredome!

A side: taken in Kuala Lumpur (Tasik Perdana), Gunung Reng cave and Gerik while waiting for bus connection. All in December 2018.  Here the sounds had been equalised, slightly rearranged and hardly ever overlapped.  Recorded directly either with recorder’s mics or condenser microphones (both mono and stereo).

B side: three different locations at the smallest national park in the world (Taman Negara Pulau Pinang) in December 2019.  Other than equalisation the recordings had not be touched.  Only the recorder’s mics were used.

Mixed and mastered by Fra Zedde. Art design by Liu Lu For better listening please play loud through headphones.

Thanks to: Dharma, Kamal Sabran, Tey Beng Tze, Yong Yandsen, Kok Siew Wai, Wukir Suryadi, Maisyarah Mazlan, Azzief Khaliq, Tomas Ullrich, Rasyid Khalil and Bomi Kim.

Paolo Gàiba Riva is an Italian musician, focus on harsh noise, field recordings and acoustic sound improvisation by using clarinets. Before the Covid days, he had spent many winters on long deep Asia tours and performed on many experimental music festivals in Malaysia and Philippines. In 2018 he released a clarinet duo album with Zhu Wenbo on Zoomin’ Night.