Our Ailing Waters, by Trevor Helminski

Our Ailing Waters

by Trevor Helminski

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Full Digital Discography

37

releases

Get all 37 Trevor Helminski releases available on Bandcamp.

Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Cave Music, Texture Study, The Quarantine Polka, Two Nocturnes, Dance Rhapsody, Ten Electronic Pieces, Stromatolites and Selected Drones, Electronic Piece in Four Movements, and 29 more. , and , .

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1.	Part 1: Channel Sunrise 01:13	buy track
2.	Part 1: Amoco Cadiz 01:09	buy track
3.	Part 1: Sea Urchins Wash Ashore 01:22	buy track
4.	Part 1: Plougasnou Slick 01:52	buy track
5.	Part 1: Coastal Hypoxia 02:11	buy track
6.	Part 1: Jelly Carbon Shunt 01:24	buy track
7.	Part 1: Chennai Noctiluca 00:52	buy track
8.	Part 1: Gonyaulax Red Tide 01:06	buy track
9.	Part 1: Pseudo-nitzschia australis 01:02	buy track
10.	Part 1: Georges Bank Humpbacks 02:08	buy track
11.	Part 1: The Curious Diet of Benthic Holothurians 00:58	buy track
12.	Part 1: Polypropylene Beach 01:21	buy track
13.	Part 1: Osytercatcher Carcass 01:29	buy track
14.	Part 1: Aldabra and Vallée de Mai 01:37	buy track
15.	Part 1: Corals and Zooxanthellae 01:37	buy track
16.	Part 1: Acroporid Serratiosis 01:06	buy track
17.	Part 1: Medicine Chests of the Sea 00:51	buy track
18.	Part 1: Palmyra Atoll Recovery 01:30	buy track
19.	Part 1: Mass Bleaching Event 01:31	buy track
20.	Part 1: Drongos and Tortoises 02:31	buy track
21.	Part 1: Tristan Albatross in Flight 01:16	buy track
22.	Part 1: Hawksbill at Sea 01:05	buy track
23.	Part 1: Baile de Vaquitas 01:48	buy track
24.	Part 2: Drowned River Valley 01:33	buy track
25.	Part 2: Sediment Infill 01:27	buy track
26.	Part 2: Sulfide Intrusion 00:51	buy track
27.	Part 2: Seagrass Meadow 00:52	buy track
28.	Part 2: Delta Smelt 00:53	buy track
29.	Part 2: Reclamation Ground 01:06	buy track
30.	Part 2: Chesapeake Crab Jubilee 01:38	buy track
31.	Part 2: Dead Zone 01:03	buy track
32.	Part 2: Tributary Phosphates and Nitrates 00:51	buy track
33.	Part 2: Field Assay 02:11	buy track
34.	Part 2: "A Diet of Weak Poisons" 01:05	buy track
35.	Part 2: Bog Hummock Desiccation 01:01	buy track
36.	Part 2: Smoldering Peatland 01:11	buy track
37.	Part 2: Irrigation Salinity 01:05	buy track
38.	Part 2: San Joaquin Valley Subsidence 01:00	buy track
39.	Part 2: "A Home in Insipid Surroundings" 01:42	buy track
40.	Part 2: Neuroendocrine Disruptors 00:43	buy track
41.	Part 2: Bigeye Tuna Bycatch 01:30	buy track
42.	Part 2: The Tangled Web 02:04	buy track
43.	Part 2: Trawlers at Work 01:01	buy track
44.	Part 2: Great Lake Zebra Mussels 00:56	buy track
45.	Part 2: "The Repeated Refrains of Nature" 00:42	buy track
46.	Our Ailing Waters Part 1 (Continuous Play) 33:11	buy track
47.	Our Ailing Waters Part 2 (Continuous Play) 26:35	buy track
48.	Our Ailing Waters Suite 1 17:16	buy track
49.	Our Ailing Waters Suite 2 12:10	buy track
50.	Our Ailing Waters Suite 3 11:29	buy track
51.	Our Ailing Waters Suite 4 13:16	buy track

about

"Our Ailing Waters" is the imaginary soundtrack for an imaginary documentary.

The music consists of sampled, manipulated, looped, and recomposed sounds and themes from seven archival films from 1964 to 1978. The sounds and music have been removed from their original context and reassembled to suggest an atmosphere of mystery, wonder, and danger. In its new context, the assembled material forms a loose narrative about aquatic biomes and the threats they face.

The track titles evoke important events and concepts in conservation. Some titles (such as "Drowned River Valley") are references to threatened biomes (such as various estuaries, peat bogs, and coral atolls). Others (such as "Acroporid Serratiosis" and "Pseudo-nitzschia australis") refer to specific environmental pressures (such as pathogens, invasive species, and specific forms of habitat degradation). A few titles (such as "Corals and Zooxanthellae") allude to biological processes (like endosymbiosis) that are disrupted by human-made climate change and pollution (see coral bleaching). Other titles recall characteristic events, sometimes little-known, in recent memory ("Amoco Cadiz") or refer to species broadly and sometimes unexpectedly affected by pollution ("Osyercatcher Carcass").

Apart from references to species critically endangered by human activity ("Hawksbill at Sea"), a few titles refer to instances of helpful human stewardship ("Aldabra and Vallée de Mai") and offer a glimmer of hope.

The four tracks at the end include groupings of my favorite selections from the hour-long imaginary soundtrack in the tradition of classical ballet orchestral suites.

Album playlist on Youtube: www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-JynHfxbek0BCIhvEJ1vne0ygEJ33FBC

Trevor Helminski's Youtube channel: www.youtube.com/channel/UCV40wcvKqol3irtI3g3UwOw

credits

released December 29, 2019

Music and sound sample credits:

"Above the Horizon" (1964)
National Film Board of Canada
Soundtrack by Eldon Rathburn
c/o Internet Archive
archive.org/details/abovethehorizon

"Cry of the Marsh" (1969)
Bill Snyder Films
c/o Internet Archive
archive.org/details/cryofthemarsh

"Life at Salt Point: Salt Water Ecology" (1978)
Coronet Instructional Media
c/o Internet Archive
archive.org/details/lifeatsaltpointsaltwaterecology

"Marine Flowers" (1975)
Tokyo Cinema, Inc., International Film Bureau
c/o Internet Archive
archive.org/details/marineflowers

"The Night of the Squid" (1970)
Doubleday Multimedia
Soundtrack by Kenyon Hopkins
c/o Internet Archive
archive.org/details/nightofthesquidreel1

"Problems of Conservation: Wildlife" (1970)
Encyclopaedia Britannica Educational Corporation
c/o Internet Archive
archive.org/details/problemsofconservationwildlife

"Sea Turtles: Race for Life" (1975)
Time-Life Films
c/o Internet Archive
archive.org/details/seaturtlesraceforlife

* * *

Album cover based on a still image from
"Life at Salt Point: Salt Water Ecology" (1978)
Coronet Instructional Media
c/o Internet Archive
archive.org/details/lifeatsaltpointsaltwaterecology

license

some rights reserved

about

Trevor Helminski Chandler, Arizona

I am an elementary school teacher by day. In my free time, I make music with music boxes, toy instruments, chip tones, glitches, and other electronic sounds. I especially enjoy manipulating low fidelity recordings.

My other interests include biology, bird-watching, science, history, humanism, and language. ... more

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