Flo Wilson Shares 'Prelude To A Requiem'

Aotearoa sonic artist and performer Flo Wilson has shared an immersive new three track collection via Saplings Records — an ecologically focused imprint founded by experimental producer Fis who "specialise in digital music releases and planting trees from proceeds," in partnership with Eden Reforestation Projects. Comprised of two 20 minute versions of the title track plus a radio edit, the meditative tones of Prelude to a Requiem were "written to offer space during times of loss and adversity," first created as a journal of diary-like field recordings of the artist's own "experiences in coping and processing anticipatory grief".

Originally commissioned as a quadraphonic audio-visual work, presented in 2018 at Sydney's Verge Gallery, the composition was subsequently revisited by Wilson and Saplings "using the worldizing technique pioneered by Orson Welles." The work was played through a (fairly hefty) sound system in a food forest in Sumner, Ōtautahi, recorded on-site through microphones, then mixed back in with the original to create the tangibly present yet ghost-like 'Prelude to a Requiem at Sumner Food Forest'. You can learn more about Wilson's project and Saplings' mangrove tree planting initiative over on Bandcamp HERE.

“In my experience having grown up in New Zealand (specifically as a Pākeha/ New Zealand European), there are not many ways people speak openly with each other about grief, unless they have experienced grief themselves.” - Flo Wilson.