In Place of War announces new album ‘The Last Scream’
Brand new album The Last Scream is released today featuring incredible underground artists from around the globe responding to wildlife sounds, including recordings of extinct and endangered species.
The Last Scream follows the 2021 album project, Cucusonic, which was released in partnership with In Place of War and used recordings of animal sounds from the Colombian Neotropical forests to bring together creative artists, scientists and other groups in Colombia and beyond to explore the transformative potential of biodiversity.
Musicians including Laughta, ST£FAN, Juan Chao, Fingathing and others were given access through In Place of War’s global project EarthSonic to curated sound collections to create new music in response to biodiversity loss. Climate change and biodiversity loss have been linked throughout Earth’s history, but human activities in the modern era are accelerating both at unprecedented rates, with feedback loops worsening both crises.
A single from British-Lebanese artist Laughta, "TIK TIK TIK," was released 7th February ahead of the album launch. Laughta chose three species sounds to work with including the red-browed amazon (Amazona rhodocorytha) - an increasingly rare parrot that features in the single artwork, Duarte's snouted tree frog (Scinax duartei) - a species of frog discovered in 1951, which now has a stable population living in the mountains of southeastern Brazil, and the lark-like brushrunner (Coryphistera alaudina), a bird found in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay.
Album and single artist Laughta said: When I started working on ‘TIK TIK TIK,’ I knew I wanted the core of the track to be built entirely from the nature samples. Rather than using traditional instruments or synthesisers, I challenged myself to sculpt the entire melody and rhythm from the voices of these creatures. There was something incredibly moving about working with the calls of species that are disappearing, these animals already have their own musicality, their own tempo and key, and I found myself collaborating with nature in a way I never have before. It was humbling and inspiring to take these raw, organic sounds and shape them into something new.
EarthSonic works with indigenous communities, musicians, cultural organisers, scientists, climate activists and experts to tell the story of climate change through music. The project was devised by non-profit organisation In Place of War and has a number of initiatives, including a curated sounds archive, live events and its own record label, which has featured artists such as Brian Eno, Matthew Dear and Damsel Elysium.
Working with scientists from around the world, EarthSonic created two new wildlife sound collections for The Last Scream – the first in collaboration with the Fonoteca Neotropical Jacques Vielliard (FNJV) archive (from the Museu de Diversidade Biológica – UNICAMP, Brazil), which is curated by Professor Felipe Toledo; and the second including sounds collected from individual scientists and institutions, curated by EarthSonic’s Sounds Archive manager and musician/nature sound recordist Merlyn Driver.
The Fonoteca Neotropical Jacques Vielliard – named after a celebrated French ornithologist – is the fourth largest scientific nature sound archive in the world and the largest in the Neotropics, housing over 120,000 recordings. Included across the two collections are some of the last recorded sounds - ‘The Last Scream’ - of extinct species including the Campo Grande tree frog (Boana cymbalum), from Brazil, and the ʻōʻū (Psittirostra psittacea) - a species of colourful Hawaiian bird that lived across the Hawaiian islands.
Professor Felipe Toledo said: Species are disappearing at an alarming rate, with extinctions occurring daily. While scientists are deeply committed to saving them, the pace of extinction may outstrip our efforts. By recording the voices of animals, we can at least preserve a fragment of their fascinating behavioral traits, safeguarding these invaluable echoes of life for future generations.
The album’s artists were invited to listen and respond to these sounds, aiming to bring to life what is often in danger of extinction or no longer exists. The Last Scream aims to raise awareness of connections between climate change, biodiversity loss and extinction, using the voices of diverse species and the extraordinary artists who have created new music with them.
Two new music videos are also being created for Laima Leyton and Iggor Cavalera’s track ‘Afterlife’ and Martyn Ware and Gabriel Ware’s track ‘DeNature’, both premiering at SIM São Paulo Festival, 17-21 February 2025 as video installations.
The album artwork features the extinct ʻōʻū - a species of Hawaiian honeycreeper endemic to the Hawaiian islands, which was last seen in 1989. This bird appears on Melisa Yildirim's track 'Whose dream is this, ʻŌʻū?'. The artwork aims to capture the loneliness of the last ʻōʻū, an 'endling' - the word that scientists use to describe the last surviving individual of a species.
EarthSonic Record Label Director Vickie Amiralis said: The release aims to raise awareness of biodiversity loss through the power of creativity. Each track showcases a unique response by musicians who have been given access to the same sounds, all drawn to different samples for different reasons. ‘The Last Scream’ series really highlights how eclectic this world could be if we would take action to protect the species we share this world with.
