The current Abba title “Bumblebee” pays homage to a “small, fluffy ball” that “can hardly fly”. A Hummel anthem – from a band that sang about Adler 44 years ago (“Flying high, high, I’m a bird in the sky”). The new Abba album “Voyage” is still at the top of the charts worldwide.
Just not in Australia. There “Songs of Disappearance” overtook the Abba record in the hit parade, an album that does not receive any pop songs, but calls from 53 species of birds that are threatened with extinction. The songbirds are currently the stars of the Australian music world, they are in third place, ahead of Michael Bublé, Justin Bieber and Billie Eilish. It took the wildlife specialist David Stewart more than 40 years to record the sometimes very rare sounds.
Among other things, you can hear the silk arbor bird, which sounds like a stuttering lawnmower engine. The name of the Gang-Gang-Cockatoo (helmeted cockatoo) is reminiscent of a gangster rapper, the animal squeaks like a wine cork that you twist out of a bottle. And the song of the white-bellied frigate bird is reminiscent of the howl of a US police car. It’s also very nice that the energetically swirling Swift Parrot is ahead of Taylor Swift in the charts.
The cuckoo knows how long the beeper stars can stay on top. Weird birds like the crimson-headed easel-tail and the trunks deserve it not to fall again soon. Because some birds on “Songs of Disappearance” are so rare that you have to fear that the recording will be the latest craze. The hit parade success helps the animals: Part of the proceeds from the album goes to the bird protection organization BirdLife Australia.
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