Crickets. Lots of Crickets. And Jim Wilson – God’s Chorus LP Trunk (UK)

God’s Chorus, by Crickets. Lots Of Crickets. And Jim Wilson is an extraordinary ambient/minimal masterpiece made just using the sounds of crickets. Sounds like heaven. Or beautiful death. Or angels singing. Or a choir in the world’s most amazing cathedral. Jonny Trunk on the record: “A few years ago, I was alerted to a strange recording online. I think it was on Mixcloud, but it might have been Soundcloud. I can’t remember exactly which cloud, but I do remember other more important things: the recording was called God’s Chorus and millions of people had listened to it. And thousands of those millions of people had left comments. Some had praised the mesmerizing, angelic sounds, others more cynical thought it was a hoax. Some had theories about how it was made, educated ideas, but many didn’t care as they loved it so very much. There was also a name associated to the creation of God’s Chorus; Jim Wilson. I listened. I listened more. I found myself immediately intrigued. And within a couple of days had licensed the recording. I believed it would really suit being on vinyl and not just on a cloud waiting for more comments. The story behind the God’s Chorus recording is short and simple. It begins with the aforementioned Wilson, a songwriter and enthusiast for Native American sound, nature, ambiance and the new age. Jim recorded the crickets; he then recorded more crickets. He took one of these cricket recordings, slowed it down (just like Basil Kirchin would) and then simply played the slowed down recording over the normal version. This is what you hear on this LP except for a faded break to give us Side One and Side Two. God’s Chorus is unlike anything else. Leave it on and it becomes a bizarre hypnotic drone, somewhat like a modern minimal composition. The controversy surrounding this natural wonder lies with people who think this is just a cunningly engineered sound, a cheat, a fraud, a natural musical impossibility that has been manipulated by computer and includes human voices. But people have tried to recreate it with modern tech and choir sounds and have failed. I shall leave you to draw your own conclusions about God’s Chorus. Real or fake? True or false? I care not, as it sure sounds like crickets to me, and it sure does sound amazing.” Artwork by Bess Kirby (Aged 13), album produced by Jonny Trunk. Full-color eye-catching minimal sleeve.