The dream of the Field Cricket (Gryllus Campestris)

Gryllus Campestris in the wild

6 calls, for Laurence Rose (workshop recording. Copenhagen 14 4 19)

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(For Laurence Rose)

Single Field cricket chirrup-slowed down 500x

Field Cricket’s burrow. Farnham Common February 26th 2017

Over the past year, I have been thinking about Field Crickets a lot. I was encouraged in this direction by the naturalist, writer and musician, Laurence Rose. He introduced me to a fascinating  groups of naturalists, who share his visionary approach, and are involved with the ‘Back from the Brink Project’ LINK

The Field Cricket’s Dream 23 2 18

After many conversations at the RSPB headquarters and in London, on a snowy late February morning, I walked across the hills from Guildford to Farnham and met with Laurence to visit RSPB Farnham Heath LINK.

Puttenham Heath-en route to Farnham Heath 26 2 18

There we met with Mike Coates, who has been responsible for the returning of this precious bit of land to heathland-in terms of bird life, teeming with Nightjars, Dartford Warblers, Siskin, Crossbill, and to my delight, Goldcrest (Regulus Regulus)

Goldcrest by my path 26 2 18

Mike led us around the reserve, which is a natural wonder-and pointed out the burrows of the Field Cricket. Conversation ranged far and wide from questions of ecology to the cultural links between the late enlightenment (the time of Gilbert White, who wrote about the Field Cricket in his Natural History of Selborne) approaches to nature and the arts.

This page is by way of a place holder. My job is to find  a contemporary, musically orietntated dialogue with this landscape and this insect. But, thinking about its song over the past week, I realised that first I needed to listen closely, and in insect terms that’s a question of scale. So the clip you at the top of this post is one ‘cheep’ (about a second’s worth) of Gryllus Campestris, slowed down, and transposed down about two octaves. Such beauty and sophistication further convinces me that the notion of human superiority is arrogance at best….

Watch this space!