ROTHENBERG, DAVID & KORHAN EREL - BERLIN BÜLBÜL (CD)

"There are three distinct ways nightingales sing and countersing to each other, beginning late at night and ending by dawn in the first weeks of spring. Most males are 'inserters,' meaning that they wait about one second after a neighbor's song finishes before starting their own. Songs alternate between one bird and another. Then there are 'overlappers,' who start their song about one second after their neighbor begins, as if to cover up or jam the neighbor's signal. It may be some kind of threat or a mask of the first song, cutting into his air time. Then there are 'autonomous singers,' who sing and sing according to their own schedule, paying no heed to what any nearby nightingales are doing. Berlin is probably the best city in Europe to make music live with nightingales, because of its spacious parks and the large number of enthusiastically singing birds. Strangely enough, nighttime nightingale jamming doesn't seem to be as popular an activity as one might expect, but we have shown that it does actually work. Almost everything one plays to a nightingale will encourage him to sing more." (label info)