SECRET SOUNDS OF PONDS

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.

David Rothenberg

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.

Ilgın Deniz Akseloğlu

Rothenberg will present with Ilgın Deniz Akseloğlu, who works with language in the entwinement of art and philosophy, with the aim of decoding the cultural to arrive at the natural. Since 2013, she has worked as a curator, art-space director, writer, image editor, art book publisher and advisor. Akseloğlu was in charge of the exhibitions program of Operation Room art space in Istanbul, Turkey (2014-2021), and worked as an Advisor & Mentor at Bilder Nordic School of Photography in Oslo, Norway (2019-2021). In April 2021, in collaboration with musician and philosopher David Rothenberg, she was among the presenters at the 12th SAR International Conference on Artistic Research (Vienna, Austria). She co-curated the exhibition “A Pillar of Smoke” together with journalist Yann Perreau for the 49th edition of Les Rencontres d’Arles (France), and she was also among the jury members of Book Awards in the festival (2018). In November 2018, she was among 6 artists who completed Photo Kathmandu Mixed Media Residency program (Nepal). Akseloğlu was writer and editor in several book projects such as A Sound Word Almanac, edited by Bernd Herzogenrath, Bloomsbury (2023, London), The Gatekeeper by Lene Marie Fossen, Kehrer Verlag (2020, Berlin), How We See by 10x10 Photobooks (2019, New York),  La Puente by Charlotte Schmitz, FotoEvidence (2019, New York),  MONO, Gomma Books (2014, and 2012, London).

Eva Salzman

Eva Salzman is a contemporary American poet. Eva Salzman was born in 1960 in New York City to musicologist/composer Eric Salzman and activist/writer Lorna Salzman. She grew up in Brooklyn, where, from the age of 10 until 22, she was a dancer and later a choreographer. She was educated at Bennington College and Columbia University, then moved to Great Britain in 1985. Salzman's eclectic background has led to work in cross-arts projects with artists, dancers, and singers. Her teaching for children, teenagers and adults has included projects in London’s East End and a residency at Springhill Prison, as well as continuing work for the Poetry Society’s Poet in the City and Poetryclass projects and co-devising a Start Writing Poetry course for the Open University. She is co-editor, with Amy Wack, of the 2008 anthology Women's Work: Modern Women Poets Writing in English. Salzman's first collection of poetry, The English Earthquake, was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation and her second volume, Bargain With The Watchman, won a Special Commendation. Her poem "To the Enemy" was set for soprano and percussion ensemble by Australian composer Katia Tiutiunnik; the composition received its world premiere performance on August 26, 2010 at the opening "Visionaries" concert of the Soundstream Festival, Adelaide, South Australia. The premiere was broadcast live by ABC Classic FM.  She lives in Beacon NY.