Aerial Tal

Album: Aerial (2005)
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Songfacts®:

  • The second CD of Kate Bush's Aerial album is a suite subtitled A Sky of Honey, which begins on a summer day's sunrise and ends twenty-four hours later. The songs are soaked with the sounds of birdsong, in particular this interlude, which consists of Bush imitating the singing of our feathered friends.

    "I've always loved birdsong," Bush told The Independent, "and I suppose that was the starting point for that piece on the record, speculation about whether it's a language. The key idea was this connection between birdsong and light, that singing seems to be triggered by the breaking of light, and in the absence of light, they stop singing." (Pauses) "Though there's a few exceptions – nightjars, reed warblers, blackbirds. And of course, the owl!"
  • The song was performed live as part of Bush's 2014 shows at the Hammersmith Apollo in London and included on the live recording taken from the concerts, Before The Dawn.
  • Other tunes that contain birdsong include "Birds" by Bic Runga, "Morning Mr. Magpie" by Radiohead and "Unknown Caller" by U2.
  • Much of the bird song had been recorded in the garden outside Bush's house. The singer had listened to the recordings and transcribed them in her own voice. "I've always liked wood pigeons," she smiled to Mojo magazine. "That was quite easy because that's quite simplistic actually isn't it? It's an easy shape. But the blackbird that was tricky. Because it's intricate."

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