SECRET SOUNDS OF PONDS

by David Rothenberg

In Secret Sounds of Ponds, environmental musician and ecopoet David Rothenberg tosses a microphone into a pond and we read (and hear) about an entirely new realm: the unexpected and stirring rhythms of some of the smallest and loudest creatures on Earth. Recording the songs of the animals and plants inhabiting each pond reveals a different perspective than what we meet in our human society. Rothenberg makes this music real though his engaging prose and conversations with environmentalists ranging from Werner Herzog to Peter Gabriel to ecologists specializing in these unique waterscapes. Each pond episode brings the reader closer to a new understanding of the non-human world that we share.

Rothenberg has previously investigated, recorded, and collaborated with the music of birds and whales. Now he writes, “Having heard the pond, I want to join the pond, making music no one species could make alone.” His energizing and technological research combines with a musician’s and poet’s creative aptitude as he discovers the orchestration of ecosystems, uncovering new connections lurking beneath the silent surface. Secret Sounds of Ponds is replete with full-color photographs and musical works presented both as colorful spectrograms and as QR codes that you can listen to with your phone. Some are musical, some are rhythmic, some Rothenberg accompanies on his clarinet. Roof Books is pleased to present its readers with this entirely new poetry of sound and humanity.

People Are Saying:

“It’s now obviously urgent that we find a way back into balance with nature that observes, respects and integrates us into what we have left of the natural world. It’s great to see and listen to David Rothenberg’s work, harnessing science and music to point out the path of potential dialogue with the natural world and all the wonderful creatures within it.”

—Peter Gabriel

“Mind-expanding. Generative. A book full of sonic marvels. Rothenberg shows how deep listening can change us.”

—David George Haskell, Sounds Wild and Broken and Songs of Trees

“On the page and through his musical instruments, David Rothenberg sounds like no one else. That’s because he listens like no one else. Much more than a reading experience, this book is a listening experience. Savor these pages.”

—Carl Safina, Beyond Words and Alfie and Me

“This music woke something in my brain that I never knew was there. The sounds and the intelligent beauty of the words have given me an entirely new category of music: one that makes me feel ecstatic and serene, thrilled and calm at the same time.”

—Jay Griffiths, Wild and A Country Called Childhood

About the Author:

Musician and philosopher David Rothenberg wrote Why Birds Sing, Bug Music, Survival of the Beautiful, Nightingales in Berlin and many other books, published in at least eleven languages. His two previous books of poetry are Blue Cliff Record: Zen Echoes and Invisible Mountains. His latest book is Whale Music. He has more than forty recordings out, including One Dark Night I Left My Silent House with Marilyn Crispell on ECM, and most recently In the Wake of Memories and Faultlines. He has performed or recorded with Pauline Oliveros, Peter Gabriel, Ray Phiri, Suzanne Vega, Scanner, Elliott Sharp, Iva Bittová, and the Karnataka College of Percussion. Rothenberg is a Distinguished Professor at the New Jersey Institute of Technology.