The amazing Gruenrekorder label follows up last year’s Sounds of the Wetlands, one of our top field recording albums of 2025, with a pair of water-based releases. Kozmické louky is a further investigation of wetlands and their surrounding environments, while the extended work Ghostly Waters takes a deep dive into the River Calder and its rich biophony. We’ll be covering one today and the next one tomorrow.
Magdaléna Manderlová‘s Kozmické louky was recorded over the course of five years at the Polish border of the Czech Republic. Once endangered, this natural floodplain has begun to return to life; yet the larger crisis of climate change continues to threaten its stability. For now, the artist invites listeners to reflect on the intertwined lives of its inhabitants: creatures of water and air, an extensive biosystem dependent on the health of the wetlands.
“Probouzení” (“Awakening”) introduces us to these residents, who create a dense thicket of sound. In this piece, the traffic is also close enough to be heard, a constant reminder that even protected spaces have boundaries. In “U soutoku” (“At the Confluence”), one can hear human voices, though the flowing water is the main character. Birds galore dominate “Intenzita” (“Intensity”); the title is well-chosen. While it’s difficult to estimate by sound alone, there seem to be hundreds of birds, all communicating at once. If only this piece were a bit longer! In contrast, individual fowl are heard flapping their wings in the subsequent piece, along with a high-whistling creature whose cry is like that of air escaping from a balloon. “Léto” (“Summer”) introduces swarms of bees, who are both pollinators and food, nestled in the center of the food chain, while rain falls gently at the end of Side A, covering all with sweet white noise, only to be interrupted by a foreboding motor.
Of the Opava River wetlands Manderlová writes, “Breaths, rustles, songs, (and) rhythms … form endlessly shifting compositions.” On Side B, she extends the invitation to guest composers. Peter Cusack‘s “Wind in the Face” adds assertive notes to the watery backdrop, playing in tune with the wetland symphony. Church bells ring in Lucie Páchová’s “Mokřad,” adding a sense of holiness. In the center, human percussion is met by nature’s own pops and beats while in the distance, one can hear joyful human song. “Souznění” is an outlier: Manderlová’s score performed live by human participants, who imitate the sounds of nature in a convincing manner.
Michal Kindernay discovers a drone in the midst of the mix, and amplifies it with a corresponding drone of his own, which dissolves into the wetland flow. In the next piece, Manderlová engages in conversation with beloved relative Věra, and in the closing piece, she invites Adela Mede to form a human chorus while clarinetist-composer Klaus Ellerhusen Holm serenades the stream. Together, these pieces capture the Kozmické louky in a time of recovery, their tone reverent and celebratory. It’s wonderful to hear a success story; may such progress continue! (Richard Allen)
a closer listen 