Sounds of a Tropical Rain Forest in America

Sounds of a Tropical Rain Forest in America

released on LP in 1965

EDIT 12/15/2014: A few years after this was posted, I learned the truth about this record courtesy of an article from the Smithsonian Folkways Magazine which is rather interesting coming from Folkways's official publication. Turns out that this was not recorded anywhere in Peru, it is stitched together from recordings in Panama, Connecticut, the Bronx Zoo and a bathtub somewhere in Manhattan. While it is considered an outstanding example of "sonic fakery", it is also an outstanding example of sonic editing.

This record comprises the background sounds for an American Museum of Natural History exhibition about isolated Indian tribes that lived in the rainforests in eastern Peru.

This record is somewhat a challenge and an experiment. In order to show every day life of a people that "adapt life in a hostile environment", who "live untouched today by white man's civilization", not only did the visual exhibit have to be "complete material manifestation" of a native culture but the sounds of the "environment" had to be projected both as to truth and actuality and to the proper dynamic and frequency of sound as heard at different times of the day during the two predominent seasons of the year.
...
Parrots, cicadas, black howler monkeys, toucan, macaw, were the predominant animals heard. Jaguars were hunted but these animals seldom make noise. Rains are sudden and come racing across the top of the forest leaves and can be heard from a distance and sounds like a drum beating from afar.
...
Animals behave in the following manner in a rain forest. The first sounds heard were: at dawn, birds every two to three seconds; then monkeys between seven to eight A.M., then a mixture of bird and monkey noises. Until noon sounds are interspersed with long periods of silence. At noon there is more noise as animals gather food for lunch. Parrots fly in flocks at intervals of perhaps the following order: 1 -1,2,3; 1 -1,2,3,4; -1, between ten A.M. and four P.M. screeching bark of monkeys is one to two seconds apart. Sounds are heard at a distance of one-third of a mile. Animals, like human beings in the tropics, have a siesta in the afternoon with little sounds going on. From five to eight P.M. there is more activity when the toad and cricket take over. In the middle of the day the guan cackles. Toucan is heard from ten-thirty A.M. to three P.M.; tinamou late in the day, after six P.M.; monkey chatter all day; dove or pigeon sounds early in the morning. Bell bird is heard at dark; peep of tree toad before rain. Rain sounds like drum-like surf, drips and slaps. After the rains trees fall. During the rains little goes on. Late evening or before rain fish jump.
...
As a dramatic presentation, and because enough sounds were available it was decided that the approach would be - for every hour of the day from one to two minutes of sound would be used on the record. Thus in sixteen minutes of play an idealized condition was possible in depicting a dawn to dusk period. (Moses Asch)


Tracklisting:

Side I

1. The Dry Season {11:58}
Cricket and Dove; Violaceous Jay; Black Howler Monkeys; Parrot; Swainson Toucan; Cicadas; Great Rufus Motmot; Cicada, Spotted Chachalaca, Great Tinamou, Wattled Guan, Red Wattled Curassow; Toucan and Jay; Monkey Chatter; Toucan Barbetes; Flock of Parrots; Waglers' Toucan; Macaw Talk, with Crickets; Crested Guans in Thunderstorm; Chestnut Headed Tinamou and Crickets

Side II

1. The Rainy Season {13:06}
Crickets and Parakeet; Crickets and Mourning Dove; Small Tree Toad; Peepers; Flight of Parrots; Giant Toad (Bufo Marinus); Many Toads; Rain Sequence with Crickets and Toads; Three Wattled Bell Bird; Black Howler Monkeys; Tree Fall with Screaming Monkeys, Parrots and Macaw; Tree Toad; Big Toad

(1)