What you can do on International Biodiversity Day:Around the world - http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2010/may/21/international-day-biological-diversity-eventsAt the Natural History Museum, London - http://www.nhm.ac.uk/visit-us/whats-on/iyb-day-uk-may10/index.htmlHave fun…

Good morning.I’m off to the House of Commons this afternoon to support the release of a Hepatitis C awareness-raising record This Day. With contributions from myself in collaboration with Jesper Mattsson as ‘Crash Atkins’, Bernard Butler, Melanie Laurent and Skye Edwards, it’s for an excellent cause and the album is now available from the usual download ports.See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onSFZDRmOOE David x

Quick update - after some months of recording, selecting and editing vivid wildlife and birdsong soundscapes from Ecuador for the album which has delayed things a bit we were able to get the album off to Abbey Road last week and we pick up the master tomorrow.   The 20 tracks on the album include 16 beautiful songs by human beings and 4 forest soundscapes: 3 dawn choruses, and one duet between two pauraques just after dusk…

Grammy Award winning singer Dobet Gnahoré’s third album “Djekpa la You“, released last month on CONTREJOUR (CJ024), features a beautiful new multi-instrument recording of the song Kokpa, which translates as Rainforest. It is about the forests of the region of Ivory Coast where Dobet grew up - forests some of which sadly no longer exist. Hats off to Dobet, “Djekpa La You” was the highest new entry in the European World Music Charts at the beginning of March.Dobet was originally inspired to write Kokpa for Tropical Forest Project: Ecuador and it’s very exciting that the song has evolved - watch this space for the release date when you can hear the earlier version.

Congratulations to album contributor Dobet Gnahore on her Grammy in Best Urban/Alternative Performance category!  Dobet collaborated with India Arie to cover Sade’s song “Pearls” [Soulbird/Universal Republic], and India Arie accepted the award on behalf of the two collaborators thanking Dobet for her inspiration.  Here’s what Dobet says on her myspace blog:”Originally a studio project, the two artists recently met in Washington, DC and performed “Pearls” together for the first time in a special concert honoring Dr. Martin Luther King held at the John F. Kennedy Center. President Obama spoke at the events and the entire first family was in attendance.”

As we’ve mentioned there will be two or three forest interludes on the album creating track clusters, like the silence bisecting Robert Wyatt’s ‘Cuckooland’ but with more of an emphasis on continuity.  Yesterday I met wildlife sound recordist John Paterson at his home studio - he was recording in Ecuador during December - to begin shortlisting soundscapes, birdsongs and so on.  There’s a hilarious moment where we overhear a Howler Monkey harrassing a Capuchin Monkey, while the Capuchin breaks off branches and throws them at John.  A triangle of territorialism!  We’re tempted to include the sound of a Chestnut-Mandibled Toucan purely on the strength of its name.

Today, on the 150th anniversary of the publication of Darwin’s ‘On the Origin of Species’, brilliant wildlife sound recordist John Paterson arrives in Ecuador on behalf of Ginkgo Music to begin making recordings for Tropical Forest Project: Ecuador.

There are many perfectly good recordings of individual birdsongs by ornithologists, but John belongs to a small group of expert sound recordists who specialise in making recordings in nature that vividly bring to life stunning and detailed 3-dimensional soundworlds in crystal clear stereo. We asked him if he would record for the album ambient forest soundscapes and birdsong from the forest reserves that the project is benefiting.

Our vision is that brief (eg. 10-45 second) extracts will be introduced between some of the tracks to add vividness to the whole project. Robert Wyatt introduced a complete silent break into the middle of his Cuckooland album, and our thinking is that these short interludes will create clusterings of tracks punctuated by moments of forest soundscape. I guess we could call these ‘forest clearings’.

It is perfect that he arrives on this day of all days…

We are eternally grateful to Abbey Road Studios who have agreed to master Tropical Forest Project: Ecuador.  It is an honour for us and for the project that the studio that made the Beatles’ albums and has such an incredible history will be handling the mastering for us. Onwards and upwards!

Audio engineer Peter Junge will begin mixing the album next week.  Peter was selected as the mixing engineer for the project after a number of auditioning engineers submitted mixes of David McAlmont’s song ‘Fog on the Mountain’.  We selected David’s track to put the engineers through their paces because it is the most complex on the album, including a 16-piece orchestra recorded live at Blackheath Conservatoire of Music. Peter’s mix really stood out as stunningly rich, warm and beautiful.  In addition to being a freelance Recording, Mixing and Live Engineer Peter is also a Lecturer at the SAE Institute of Audio Engineering in London.  We’re delighted that Peter is bringing his talents and his ear to the project.

Looks like Vivienne Westwood is going to help us out by dressing one of our artists for a magazine photoshoot. More later…