Kozmické louky | Magdaléna Manderlová
Gruen 230 | Vinyl (+ Digital) | Digital > [order]
Ale slyším zpěv ptáků.
Tak přesný,
tak krásný,
až to vypadá,
že se nic nezměnilo.
Kozmické louky is a wetland in Silesia, on the very edge of the Czech Republic bordering Poland, where I come from, and one of the last two remaining floodplain areas on the Opava River, locally known as the Opavice. Thanks to ongoing restoration, this system of alluvial meadows has once again become home to multitudes of animal and plant communities, while at the same time facing the local-global climate crises. The album Kozmické louky listens closely to this environment and its changes over time, entering into a dialogue with it, imagining and dreaming through field recordings and electroacoustic compositions created on site or in close relation to it between 2021 and 2025.
There comes that rare moment when a human being falls silent. Alone, on behalf of their kind, which for a brief instant ceases to make sound. And in that silence —not empty, but vibrating — I begin to hear all the others. All the sounds not meant for me, yet surrounding me, including me, absorbing me. Breaths, rustles, songs, rhythms that form endlessly shifting compositions — an unceasing communication, voices attuned to themselves and to the environment that carries them. I sense that what I call “now” or “I” is only one of the knots in that vast network — a condensation of relations that both exceed me and bring me into being. It is a state of deep quiet, an almost meditative moment of bliss. As if, for an instant, a vision opened into a world that transcends us — a realm where all living beings breathe in mutual understanding, in delicate, enduring balance. It happened in Kozmické louky. A revelation of the senses, a seeing through layers. The soundscape has become music. It depends only on how sensitive we are towards the land, and how that music will be heard.
A
01 Probouzení
02 U soutoku | MP3
03 Intenzita
04 Soumrak | MP3
05 Noc
06 Léto
07 Předjaří | MP3
B
08 Peter Cusack – Wind in the face
09 Lucie Páchová – Mokřad
10 Souznění
11 Michal Kindernay – Od pramene
12 Struha
13 Adela Mede, Klaus Ellerhusen Holm, Magdaléna Manderlová – Opavice
13 Tracks (42′56″)
Vinyl (200 copies)
Credits
01-07 Recorded and mixed by Magdaléna Manderlová
08 Recorded, composed-performed and mixed by Peter Cusack
09 Composed-performed and mixed by Lucie Páchová, with field recordings by Peter Cusack and Lucie Páchová
10 Live score by Magdaléna Manderlová performed by the symposium participants at Kozmické louky in 2023
11 Recorded, composed and mixed by Michal Kindernay
12 Recorded and composed by Magdaléna Manderlová featuring Věra Manderlová, mixed by Kristoffer Lislegaard
13 Composed by Adela Mede, Klaus Ellerhusen Holm and Magdaléna Manderlová, mixed by Kristoffer Lislegaard
Mastering: Lasse Marhaug
Cover photograph: Magdaléna Manderlová
Graphic design: Kateřina Havelková
Liner notes: Magdaléna Manderlová and Michal Kindernay
Poem: František Hruška
Edition of 200
I warmly thank all the artists, scientists, local communities, and all living beings of Kozmické Meadows. Special thanks to Elin Már Øyen Vister, Frank Ekeberg, Jakub Frank, Martin Klimeš, Michal Kindernay, Roland Etzin and Lasse-Marc Riek, Ole-Tobias and Emilie, friends and family.
The album was created alongside the long-term project Kozmic Sounds by Magdaléna Manderlová and Michal Kindernay, initiated by Bludný kámen in 2021. In 2025, an autonomous listening station was placed in the meadows in collaboration with radio.earth and Udo Noll, listen here. In 2026, an extensive article about Kozmic Sounds was published by Journal of Sonic Studies, read here.
Field Recording Series by Gruenrekorder
Germany / 2026 / Gruen 230 / LC 09488