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Frédéric Nogray
Buiti Binafin (Déambulation À La Lisière Du Monde)

Album HU 2012 on 3LEAVES label
Spoken Word (Field Recording)

Limited to 100 hand numbered copies only. …Punta Izopo is a mangrove forest located on the north coast of Honduras, in the heart of the Garifuna territory. It’s the early afternoon. We are circulating by boat and I am recording wild life sounds, though this is not the best time of day to do so, because of the heat. With the boat, we enter a little deeper inside the mangrove. There, I am able to find an open space where the tree interlacing roots create a platform wide enough to place a couple of microphones and the recorder. Then we keep rowing through the maze of canals and aerial roots. One hour later, when we come back to collect the recording equipment, I notice some crab remains near the microphones. I listen to this recording for the first time once I am back to Paris: I close my eyes and I am immersed in the familiar soundscape of the mangrove... until I hear tiny sounds. I am guessing that a crab discovered and tested with its claws the metal stand of the mikes. Then I clearly identify the sound of the crab shell caving into the jaws of a predator. Since I have witnessed an iguana catching a crab and breaking its shell with a single jaw shot, I can easily recognize this sound... …Nearby, Lancetilla is a botanical garden in the middle of the rainforest near the small town of Tela. It is a haven for many residing birds and a stopping place for migratory birds. The stridulations of insects and the harmonic complexity of birds’ calls form a most enjoyable pattern. I place my microphones and step behind with my headphones on. Not even one minute later, a toucan settles on a branch right in front of the microphones and begins its call while looking at me. It hops twice from one branch to another in order to get closer to the mikes. I would have thought that this type of bird would be fierce in the wild and here I find myself in front of a beautiful toucan performing a solo for me, eclipsing all birds around... These two events are the starting points of this dreamlike composition. All sounds were field recorded on the north coast of Honduras near the Caribbean Sea during the rainy season in May 2012, then edited, assembled and mixed by Frédéric Nogray in June-July 2012. Starring keel-billed toucan (Ramphastos sulfuratus), spiny-tailed iguana (Ctenosaura similis), blue land crab (Cardisoma guanhumi) –R.I.P.-, Golden-Mantled Howling Monkeys (Alouatta palliata palliata), Montezuma Oropendolas (Psarocolius montezuma), and many other birds, frogs and insects. Artwork by Àkos Garai. Original picture from the “Andara Painting” série by Frédéric Nogray. Thank you very much Àkos Garai, Marcella Perdomo, Mito and Virginia, Arturo Flores and all the Hondurian Team, and Nayla Naoufal (for translation) !

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