«Espírito da floresta» is a climate choral piece by the composer, researcher, and musician Marcus Maeder. «Espírito da floresta» is based on measured values of the CO2 concentration in the immediate environment of a rainforest tree. These numbers vary depending on the time of day and the canopy level/altitude. Forests are being particularly impacted by the rising levels of CO2. To compensate for this, the leaves close their pores to prevent moisture loss, thus making forests a drier place.
«Espírito da floresta» aims to show how over millions of years, the rainforest has developed into a finely tuned soundscape. Disappearance of just one single tree can change this well-ordered world of sound resulting in more monotonous symphonies.
The composition is interpreted by the conductor Jakob Pilgram, with the Basel vocal ensemble Iarnyx as a KlimaKontor project. KlimaKontor sees itself as a “rhizomatically acting, mobile office” within the Basel cultural landscape, whose aim is to conceive discursive-artistic spaces of experience and negotiation for a broad audience. The composition «Espírito da floresta» and its performance belong to the CONNECTION cluster, which aims to rediscover the interconnectedness of humans beyond species boundaries and make it possible to actually experience it sensually.
Concept: Barbara Ellenberger
Dramaturgy: Anne Schöfer
Composition: Marcus Maeder
Conduction: Jakob Pilgram
Larynx choral ensemble: Hannah Beutler, Nanora Büttiker, Anne Heffner, Katharina Held, Lisa Lüthi, Olivia Scherrer, Kathi Stahel, Ulla Westvik, Sarah Widmer