In advance of the album Music for the Moon and the Trees by classical guitarist Morgan Szymanski and experimental musician Tommy Perman, Blackford Hill Audio today release the video for single ‘Pipistrellus’, of which Tommy writes:

In 2019 I spent five days in woodland in Kinross-shire recording an album with my childhood friend Morgan. This video is a document of our time there. Late one evening, fuelled by red wine, we ran around with a bat detector and recorded the echolocation sounds of pipistrelles as they swooped amongst the trees catching midgies. I’m sure I was nursing a hangover the next day when Morgan mimicked the echolocation sounds on the strings of his guitar. Hidden in the track, there’s also a sample of a note made by blowing over the top of the red wine bottle. The bass notes are from samples of pinged spruce branches. The percussion comes from Morgan drumming on his guitar combined with the metallic sounds of a horseshoe found next to the cottage.

Watch and listen below.

Music for the Moon and the Trees combines Morgan’s improvised, live, single-take performances with Tommy’s computer generative improvisations. All of the audio heard on the album was recorded outside, including the sounds of the trees, birds, bats and an assortment of found percussion.

The album will be released on 5th August. More information, including purchase links, can be found here.