Golden Lion Tamarins

These gorgeous red headed tree dwellers are now one of the most endangered mammals in the world thanks to naughty humans coveting their beautiful coats and destroying their rainforest habitat. Their total wild population exists in a tiny protected Brazilian enclave where there are estimated to be around only 1000 left. Despite this depressing statistic my backing track is pretty upbeat as I reckon these little primates have fun with a full range of Latin percussion in the forest.

I've opted to write a track for one of my favourite animals - the macaw. The bird in question is the Blue-Throated variety that hails from Bolivia, where habitat destruction (due to the coffee industry) has dwindled their number to around 100. That's right - only ONE HUNDRED birds leftl!!! That makes them CRITICALLY ENDANGERED!

These dudes build their nests in palm-tree clusters (not in the forests) and they're running out of places to nest. They're pretty easy to breed in captivity, and are common pets in the West, where they live in people's bathrooms.

Head f*ck

In search of the Kakapo and suitably inspirational video I stumbled across this classic scene screened in the recent "TV adaptation"of Douglas Adam's Last Chance To See.

This is quite useful for me as I've been thinking that the song of the Kakapo should be a yearning jazz fusion/Herbie Hancock affair designed to ensnare a mate. The Kakapo in this video takes a more direct action than digging a bass-binesque trench by simply jumping Mark the photographer. Now, as always with IML projects, I'm setting out with a personal musical brief way beyond my abilities or time at disposal but I always like to aim high to start with. So Herbie Hancock/Funk workout meets a soulful flightless love-bird serenading a potentially absentee mate it is.

Chelonia mydas

I've decided to compose my contribution to this album on the subject of the Green Sea Turtle, Chelonia mydas. The species is classified as Endangered on the IUCN Red List. This video swayed it for me. It shows ten specimen being released into the Atlantic last summer from a beach in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, which is my favourite place in the world.

The Green Sea Turtle is a slow and relaxed creature which appears to fly gracefully through the water by flapping its fins. I have an idea for the music which is similarly relaxed and peaceful. The piece will probably be arranged quite simply with finger picked steel string acoustic guitar featuring dominantly.

Booooooooom

OK, I might have a bit of an unfair advantage on account of having an insider tip off for the next album theme but I couldn't resist putting my hand up for the Kakapo first:
http://www.arkive.org/kakapo/strigops-habroptila/

I first read about it in Douglas Adams' wonderful book "Last chance to see" which quite frankly should be required reading for, well everyone, but specifically people joining this IML project. The book documents a journey around the world to visit species on the verge of extinction, and this chap was the star of the show for me. Its ritualistic attempts to find a mate involve digging a trench to enhance its already impressive sub bass, and yet, in some cases there is no mate to be found.

I want to know more about it, hence choosing it as my subject, it will force me to research. I'm really looking forward to the assignment and I hope that whoever gets my backing track finds the beauty in this wonderful creature as well. More soon ...

Blogging for the Intercontinental Music Lab

So, we've made *checks www.intercontinentalmusiclab.com for details* 6 albums so far and it's about time we thought about album number 7 isn't it? Yes, that's right, that lucky not so difficult seventh album. Looking through the history of the musical entertainment system we can discover the various bands that split up after making just a paltry 6 albums. By entering our seventh multi continental studio album, we are therefore more grown up than ALL of the following bands:

The Doors

Yes, that's all I could find through my avid googling. The phrase that manage to garner results in the end was (with the aid of boolean quote marks) "they only made six albums". I have attached a photograph of Jim Morrison to this post to really bring this fact alive, but also, more importantly, so we can see what our new blogger template looks like with some real content added to it. Watch this space for more updates in the next few days.