“A Guide to the Birdsong of Mexico, Central America & the Caribbean” is the brainchild of activist, music producer, Shika Shika label co-founder and former Greenpeace campaigner, Robin Perkins, best known as his music production alias, El Búho, (meaning ‘Owl’ in Spanish).
Aware of the increasing vulnerability of various species around the world and with his burgeoning connections to the underground music scene, Robin embarked on ‘A Guide to Birdsong of South America’ in 2015, a crowdfunded album in which he provided artists with sound files of tweets of vulnerable or near extinct birds who then incorporated those sounds into new compositions – artists who in recent years have become internationally renowned like Nicola Cruz, Dengue Dengue Dengue, Chancha Via Circuito and his Shika Shika label co-founder, Barrio Lindo. That first edition has raised, to date, upwards of USD $15k benefitting conservation projects in South America.
This second edition follows a similar premise to its predecessor but shifts focus north of the equator and to the vulnerability of bird species like the Momoto Carenado (Nicaragua), Ferminia (Cuba) and the Jamaican Blackbird (Jamaica), birds who have dwindled in numbers as a result of the environmental repercussions of climate change, deforestation and trapping for the pet trade. The project sprang to life after a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign in August 2019 which raised a phenomenal £12,599 from 343 backers.
We are excited to premiere Colín Ocelado or the ocellated quail an endangered bird from Guatemala reworked by Di Laif.
An album of music inspired by the song of endangered birds with 100% of the profits going towards organisations working to protect them.
Out this friday on Shika Shika records, order your copy of this wonderful project here.