Frogs, crickets, grasshoppers and cicadas - they are species we know first and foremost by their song. By the thousands, they are hidden in meadows, roadsides, on small banks; what we see is at most a ripple in the water or a movement in the grass. The chorus that tells us spring has begun is composed of countless lures. Males seducing a female with their own species-specific frequency. The more attentively we listen, the more we begin to hear. Not only do we distinguish species and patterns, we also hear how the voices in the chorus are changing, new species making themselves heard, others silently disappearing. Crickets and frogs, like birds, sing a song about the speed at which our climate is changing, about the state of our surface water, our soil, biodiversity and globalisation (in Amsterdam, the first song cicadas have already been spotted a few years back, hitchhiking along in the roots of plants from warmer regions). It is a song that is also about us. We listen, we seek access. From the lure of the animals, a composition for humans springs forth, temporarily.

Calling Songs is a project in which Swarm seeks out insect and amphibian biotopes to perform concerts together. Depending on the place and season, we accompany the green frog, the field cricket or the crackling cicada.

As dusk falls, the audience is taken to a location where there is such a population. Swarm's players are scattered through the landscape, part of the environment. The set-up is mobile (wireless and battery-powered). We use several small amplifiers, unobtrusively distributed across the terrain. The vocals of the toads and waterbugs have characteristics that are curiously almost electronic, blending well with the sound world that Zwerm can produce using effects pedals, loop feedback, no-input mixing and the occasional guitar. The volume we produce always remains below or equal to the volume of the population we play with.

For Calling Songs, Zwerm is working closely with Baudewijn Odé. Odé is considered an authority on crickets and grasshoppers and bioacoustics in the Netherlands. He works as a researcher and coordinator for the conservation organisation Ravon. He has also been researching the song of water bugs for several years. For performances in Flanders, Zwerm would like to collaborate with a knowledge centre or conservation organisation in Flanders.