A deep dive into Yasuaki Shimizu’s expansive discography beyond Kakashi and Utakata no Hibi. Welcome to the spirited, enchanting world of Japanese musical visionary Yasuaki Shimizu… A contemporary […]
Habitat Ensemble: A Collective from ‘Deep in the South of the Czech Republic’
You only need read the opening sentences of the liner notes to get a sense of the Habitat Ensemble’s world.
Deep in the south of the Czech republic, near the border to Austria between the hills and fields lies a magical little village named Mariz. For many years, groups of people have been passing through this bewitching place, creating culture and art and engaging in conversations with the wild environment that this place has contained since age has begun.
More than three decades ago, artists, performers, musicians and writers from the Czech Republic, Austria and Germany began converging every summer in Mariz to spark communal creative energy. As the years passed and these artists had children, a second generation continued the pilgrimage, then a third. In 2022, a new group got together for a 12-day residency. One result of it is the new album by Habitat Ensemble. Liner notes offer details:
The project revolved around collective field research in Mariz through an exchange between the residents coming from different fields and background such as architecture, fine arts, arboristics, music, social sciences, transformation design and anthropology, and different places such as Germany, Czech Republic, Netherlands, Bulgaria, Italy and France, and the locals and elders of the village. The topics researched during the residency span from permaculture, gardening, forestry analysis, canalisation issues, research and sustainable building techniques towards sociocultural field research, and a collective attempt to create music.
Habitat Ensemble was spearheaded by participant Marius Houschyar, and the recording that came out of it was created in a barn. The aim was to include everyone at the residency, regardless of their musical backgrounds. Inside the barn was “a place full of different instruments, offering everyone a free space for musical experimentation. On each of the twelve days the participants tried out ways of producing and capturing sounds. Besides collective improvised jam sessions, a choir was formed as a liberating tool that wiped away fears and insecurities and contributed to the creation of an even stronger communal feeling.”
A few month ago, the great label Music from Memory released an album by Habitat Collective drawn from the Barn recordings. Now an ongoing musical collective, their first record delivers a singular burst of creativity that mixes field recordings, ambient synths, a choir, spoken word, and a host of percussion and string instruments.
We’re currently stocking the Habitat Ensemble in our record shop, and have been including it in packages for subscribers to our glorious, never-wrong record club.
