Echolocation is a full-length electronic/classical/ambient record by Berlin-based American electro-acoustic composer George Hurd. Hurd has composed for artists such as the Grammy-winning Third Coast Percussion and famed violinist/vocalist Carla Kihlstedt. His music has been performed across the U.S. from the Kennedy Center in D.C., to the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco, and includes solo performances from such cutting-edge electronic music festivals as Mutek and more.
For Echolocation, he has combined his chamber ensemble, over a hundred musicians randomly encountered on his travels over the years, and a massive web of electronic sounds built out of field recordings from each place. These massive forces have been used to write a suite of music with each piece representing a different location – Europe, New Zealand, and North America so far. Cut off from the world during the pandemic, he dove into a lifetime of field recordings to complete this project years in the making. What began as an adventure to collect sounds has turned into a celebration of travel and far-off places, as well as the completely unique soundscape/feeling each one has if you’re willing to listen closely enough.
Every track is directly built out of and/or inspired by sounds he’s collected in each location, and woven together with his electro-acoustic group, The Hurd Ensemble. San Francisco is made almost entirely out of uniquely San Franciscan field recordings; Zambujeira do Mar was made for Hurd to propose to his girlfriend while in southern Portugal (she said yes!) written in secret for a 90-piece choir and chamber ensemble and recorded remotely across two continents; Punakaiki was written on-the-spot using modular synths overlooking New Zealand’s alien-like “pancake rocks” at sunset; Lisbon was written using the local Lisbon guitar quartet, Marafona. It’s a collection of music reflecting tactile memories; once-in-a-lifetime experiences out in the real world wrapped up in new friends and acquaintances; a document to a life lived.