Have you ever seen animals play music? Surely you remember animated cartoons from when you were little, like the famous musicians of Bremen or in some of the Disney and Pixar films. Well, this proposal goes further. This artist has created a band of endangered animals living in Colombia who make electronic music from their movements. This is the trending Imaginary Funk Band everybody is talking about.
The name of this particular artist is Tomer Baruch (interview here). He is an excellent music producer, and one of the most engaged volunteers of This is My Earth. Tomer works and lives in Tel Aviv, where he has a recording studio and teaches music. He is also an Instagram influencer with almost 140k followers who has created a new language that unites experimental electronic music and nature conservation.
His short videos are known worldwide, and media from around the globe have highlighted his talent and unique artistic discourse.
He has joined forces with our sister organization and partner in Colombia, Salva Montes, to help TiME fundraise enough money to buy it and protect forever Los Magnolios nature reserve. The trending Imaginary Funk Band is a novel and fresh concept that engages the audience and conservationists on social media through art.
If you follow Tomer‘s Instagram account (@animalsandsynthesizers) you will see several threatened species from Los Magnolios holding duets. Tomer has created a viral campaign on Instagram, and you can also donate. Meet the trending Imaginary Funk Band from Los Magnolio’s Reserve’s. You can aslo post your duet (if you dare).
Fragments of Sonic Extinction: Art to save Earth’s biospheres
Fragments of Sonic Extinction (FOSE) is an ongoing project initiated by German-Bulgarian artist and curator Kalas Liebfried in 2022. The project demonstrates a subjective approach towards the extinction of natural sounds. It focuses on the sonic character of the process of extinction along with its relationship to various cultural histories and global catastrophes related to the Anthropocene.
Thanks to Tomer Fragments of Sonic Extinction highlights This is My Earth‘s efforts to protect Los Magnolios. This edition does not distance itself from the invaluable nature of individual species but focuses on communicating the tensions between discourses of complexity, highlighting the links between environments, economies, cultures, and the narratives that they embody and employ to understand—and accelerate—their development.
The goal of this project is to create valuable impulses for the emergence of ecological awareness through the use of immersion in and sensitivity to sonic perspectives through the creation of sustainable cultural artefacts, which pay close attention to the catastrophes taking place in biospheres.
In the form of a website, the project intends to shift the focus on ephemeral extinction and the complexity of the rapid changes within the sonic spheres of our world. By taking an active position and an engaged approach, the website’s visitors can recompose the layers of each composition, in the process creating new and unique experiences, representing possible futures and examining the tensions which govern the world’s various biospheres.
Employing interpretation, immersion and interaction as central characteristics, FOSE presents contributions by artists dedicated to the perilous or extinct nature of specific species and attempts to negotiate their sonic perspectives and environments, in connection to intricate social and political circumstances.
Animals and locations
The pieces of the second edition span the illegal hunting of the highly endangered black rhinos in east Africa (DUMA, Kampala/Nairobi), the genetic sequence of the remaining two species of African Elephants and their low frequency communication (Jol Thoms, London), hunters using artificial devices to imitate animal distress calls (Mishka Henner, Manchester), forest fires and the irreversible silencing of vast habitats (Aloïs Yang, Prague), the performance of a bee waggle dance, signalling potential sites for a new hive (Heloise Tunstall-Behrens & Auclair, London), the health issue-related sounds of overbred French bulldogs as a result of human hubris (Beni Brachtel, Munich), the unique sonic experience of whales and its invisibilization by humans in Antarctic waters (DAWN PHASE, Munich / Toronto) and the protection of intact territories through the purchase of land in the Amazonas (Tomer Baruch, Tel Aviv). Tomer has created the trending Imaginary Funk Band of Colombian threatened species.
FOSE intends to grow as a speculative encyclopaedia and archive, which aims to map the history, course and sound of extinction, in the process engendering an aesthetic discourse rooted in a multiplicity of perspectives, centred around the aforementioned themes. Our purpose with each curated edition is to build an inclusive global network of artists, providing an accessible and interactive archive of knowledge and resources.
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TRACKLIST
Tomer Baruch, Los Magnolios Reserve’s Imaginary Funk Band, 00:45, Tel Aviv, 2023
Heloise Tunstall-Behrens & Auclair, Dance Off (acapella), London, 05:32, 2023
Beni Brachtel, Overbreeding, 08:43, Munich, 2023
DUMA, Black Rhinos (shot to extinction for their horns), 20:20, Kampala/Nairobi, 2023
Mishka Henner, Nature Calls, Manchester, 07:26, 2023
DAWN PHASE, Junk Anima, 07:28, Toronto Munich, 2023
Jol Thoms, (Haunting Genetics of) A Tuskless Mutation, London, 05:00, 2023
Aloïs Yang, Cycles of Rebirth and Redie, 06:01, Prague, 2023
SoundCloud private link: https://on.soundcloud.com/2mvDg
SCHEDULE WEBSITE RELEASE
1 MAY: Tomer Baruch, Los Magnolios Reserve’s Imaginary Funk Band, 00:42, 2023
3 MAY: DAWN PHASE, Junk Anima, 07:36, 2023
5 MAY: Heloise Tunstall-Behrens & Auclair, Dance Off (acapella version), 5:30, 2023
7 MAY: Beni Brachtel, Overbreeding, 08:43, 2023
9 MAY: Mishka Henner, Nature Calls, 07:26, 2023
10 MAY: Jol Thoms, (Haunting Genetics of) A Tuskless Mutation, 05:00, 2023
11 MAY: DUMA, Black Rhinos (shot to extinction for their horns), 20:20, 2023
12 MAY: Aloïs Yang, Cycles of Rebirth and Redie, 06:00, 2023