For those not in the know, music on avian themes is a grand tradition of wild imagination. In this spirit, Richard Marsella’s The Birds of Marsville joins an august lineage of works based on birdsong, notably fellow ‘field guide’ compendia like Janequin’s Le chant des oyseaulx (1528) and Messiaen’s Catalogue d’oiseaux (1958).

These two chronologically distant French works share the aesthetic of being stylistically contemporary in their respective times. Marsville might be more usefully compared to Ottorino Respighi’s Gli Uccelli (The Birds, 1928) for how they employ older music as framing materials for birdsong –– Baroque music for Respighi and, for Richard, a carnivalesque synthesis of vintage dance steps; calliope; rock, jazz, and country gestures; cartoon foley; and old-timey synth noise.

1. Birds 1-39 [18:52]
2. Birds 40-76 [17:40]

Written using a mechanical street organ, built by Brampton inventor and Cuckoo clock enthusiast, Henk De Graauw, and having premiered as a one-person show at the Guelph Jazz Festival 2022, this two sectioned work of musical art (that runs at about 36 minutes combined) is so alluring, so entrancing a listen that once you begin to lend your ears to it, it fast becomes a very, very hard thing to divert away your attention from.

“When I write “carnivalesque,” I’m not trying to be evocative, though this record certainly evokes the wonderful and the festive,” Friendly Rich explains. “The Birds of Marsville is, before anything else, a live performance and, as such, very much its own carnival. I had the privilege of working with Richard to present the premiere, versions at three outdoor sites at the Guelph Jazz Festival in September 2021.” “Then, the COVID pandemic was still affecting everyone and, as live music presenters, we were looking for ways to animate people’s lives in novel, safe, and welcoming ways. Nothing could have been better than this project.” This is a brand new recording from Friendly Rich, featuring a mechanical street organ (orchestrion) alongside a chamber ensemble:

Nichol Robertson (guitar)
Nick Fraser (drums)
Gregory Oh (organs, piano)
Ed Reifel (orchestral percussion)
Tom Richards (tuba & trombone)

Track Listing:
Introduction (0 to 1:50) Overture (1:51 to 3:17) Bird One: Songwriter (3:18 to 3:50) Bird Two: The Bum Bum (3:51 to 4:00) Bird Three: The Slob (4:01 to 4:37) Bird Four: The Sucker (4:38 to 5:33) Bird Five: The Marsvillian Farm Bird (5:34 to 5:53) Bird Six: The Cinder Block (5:54 to 6:11) Bird Seven: The Wood Block (6:12 to 6:25) Bird Eight: The Log Bird: 6:26 to 6:41) Bird Nine: The Bird Cloud Birds (6:42 to 7:15) Bird Ten: The Suicide Bomber (7:15 to 7:51) Bird Eleven: The School Shooter (7:52 to 8:02) Bird Twelve: The Frantic Atlantic Panic Bird (8:03 to 8:22) Bird Thirteen: The Scatterbrained Incel (8:23 to 8:56) Bird Fourteen: The Marsvillian Shadow Bird (8:57 to 9:10) Bird Fifteen: The Mumbling Mime (9:11 to 9:28) Bird Sixteen: The Honker (9:29 to 10:00) Bird Seventeen: The Ballooner (10:01 to 10:30) Bird Eighteen: Tongue in Cheek (10:31 to 10:38) Bird Nineteen: The Handy Bird (10:40 to 10:56) Bird Twenty: The Foot Bird (10:57 to 11:05) Bird Twenty-One: The Congenital Genital Bird (11:06 to 11:27) Bird Twenty-Two: The Hypnotist (11:28 to 12:24) Bird Twenty-Three: The Spitting Spatula (12:25 to 12:37) Bird Twenty-Four: The Storyteller Bird (12:38 to 13:17) Bird Twenty-Five: The Heckler (13:18 to 13:33) Bird Twenty-Six: The Laughing Ridiculer of Mount Sinus (13:34 to 14:03) Bird Twenty-Seven: The Buck-Toothed Rascal (14:04 to 14:38) Bird Twenty-Eight: The Fraudster (14:39 to 15:14) Bird Twenty-Nine: The Ladder Bird (15:15 to 15:36) Bird Thirty: The Steakettes (15:37 to 15:54) Bird Thirty-One: The Steaks (15:55 to 16:12) Bird Thirty-Two: The Wailing Death Bird (16:13 to 16:30) Bird Thirty-Three: The Beady-Eyed Cryers (16:30 to 16:55) Bird Thirty-Four: The Sinners Choir (16:56 to 17:55) Bird Thirty-Five: The Auspicious Pernicious War Bird (17:56 to 18:17) Bird Thirty-Six: The Pukes (18:18 to 18:30) Bird Thirty-Seven: The Nukes (18:31 to 18:51) Bird Thirty-Eight: The Mad Bird of Marsville (18:52 to 19:00) Bird Thirty-Nine: The Madder Bird of Marsville (19:01 to 19:08) Bird Forty: The Maddest Bird of Marsville (19:09 to 19:29) Bird Forty-One: The Sorting Booby (19:30 to 19:36) Bird Forty-Two: The Emergency Tit (19:37 to 19:49) Bird Forty-Three: The Fake Tit (19:50 to 20:00) Bird Forty-Four: The Humourless Tit (20:01 to 20:28) Bird Forty-Five: The TV Evangelists (20:29 to 21:06) Bird Forty-Six: The Inside-Out Bird (21:07 to 21:15) Bird Forty-Seven: The Dissonant Crooner (21:16 to 21:53) Bird Forty-Eight: The Welted Wart (Hog) (21:54 to 22:06) Bird Forty-Nine: The Smelly Foot Bird (22:07 to 22:38) Bird Fifty: The Raunchy Rotten Rodent (22:39 to 22:49) Bird Fifty-One: Garbage Dumpers (22:50 to 23:21) Bird Fifty-Two: The Marsvillian Horseface (23:22 to 23:42) Bird Fifty-Three: The Vericose-Veined Vane Bird (23:43 to 24:03) Bird Fifty-Four: The Golden Gold Digger (24:04 to 24:15) Bird Fifty-Five: The Marsvillian Pepper (24:16 to 24:39) Bird Fifty-Six: The Flirt Bird (24:40 to 25:04) Bird Fifty-Seven: The Vane Bird (25:05 to 25:34) Bird Fifty-Eight: The Fratatat (25:35 to 25:44) Bird Fifty-Nine: The Horny Bird of Marsville (25:45 to 26:00) Bird Sixty: The Pearly Bird (aka The Toothy Bro) (26:01 to 26:29) Bird Sixty-One: The Muscle Bird aka The Beach Bum (26:30 to 26:49) Bird Sixty-Two: Dumb Dumb Bird aka Squaliss Pissmissy (26:50 to 27:19) Bird Sixty Three: The Pampered Powdered White Beak (27:20 to 27:35) Bird Sixty-Four: The Spoiled Rotten Turd Bird (27:36 to 27:51) Bird Sixty-Five: The Spoiled Rich Bird (27:52 to 28:24) Bird Sixty-Six: The Carrot Birds (28:25 to 28:40) Bird Sixty-Seven: The Spaghetti Bird (28:41 to 28:56) Bird Sixty-Eight: The Banana Bird (28:57 to 29:09) Bird Sixty-Nine to Seventy-Three: The Tiny Birds (29:10 to 29:42) Bird Seventy-Four: The Iceman Bird (29:43 to 29:55) Bird Seventy-Five: The Teller Bird (29:56 to 30:10) Bird Seventy-Six: The Bowling Alley Bird (30:11 to 30:22) Bird Seventy-Seven: The Twitter Bird (30:23 to 30:41) Finale (30:41 to 36:32)

Official Purchase Link

Friendly Rich | The Birds of Marsville - Official Video