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Descants is a series of pieces for instruments in natural environments. ‘Natural’, in my meaning, includes human-made environments, eschewing any artificial distinction between humans and the rest of the environment. The composed music is intended to become a part of the natural soundscape, not foregrounded or separated from the natural sounds around it.
Descants 2: and the trees sets a poem by English writer Paul Kingsnorth in 8 verses. The poem is, in my interpretation, welcoming the reclamation (re-wilding) of land devastated by agriculture and human so-called civilisation by nature.The singer, at first subdued among the human- scarred grasses, gradually becomes more animated as a wilder future, more in harmony with nature, is contemplated. The final, wordless verse is sung not for human ears but to the trees themselves.
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