In early 2022 I was commissioned by "Velingrad Mineral Water" to travel to the Rhodope Mountains in Bulgaria and capture the sounds and spirits of this special mountain. The goal was to create an album that tries to convey the majesty of this remarkable place. I traveled light, with no fancy microphones or recorders and yet the field recordings become the backbone of this work. Most of the sounds I captured were left untouched, while others became part of the musical texture alongside synth and guitar work I recorded in between my travels to the Rhodopes. Even if it might not sound like it, I went out of my comfort zone quite a few times when producing this album.
The initiative has a simple mechanic, the more the album gets played the more it will be donated to "Rewiliding Rhodopes Foundation", a fantastic organization of dedicated experts who are working hard on preserving the wildlife of the region, repopulating endangered populations of herbivores, carnivores and scavengers to ensure a better future for the ecosystems in the region.
More about the campaign find here:
https://velingradvoda.bg/priziv
Photos by Silvana Ilieva.
