In August 2023, as part of a collective field recording project,* I found myself in a beautiful acoustic situation. On the walkway over the 200m high transmitter tower on Buková hora, in the hilly landscape of the České středohoří between Ústí nad Labem and Děčín, a strong wind played several metal pipes to the sound of a kind of C minor. It blew so hard that it made even the strings of our brought concert harp ring out into unearthly harmonies reminiscent of clusters of sine tones on a synthesizer. In the staircase tube of the tower, I subsequently experimented with a natural French horn (without mechanics, playing an aliquot series in D). During the recording, from the Elbe valley far below us, the sound of a siren test on a lower g# note, which I know intimately from another previous project,** rang out.

The short piece In D: Echoes of Beech Mountain was originally sketched without any conscious specific inspiration (and also in a different key), but during its development I realized the obvious connection with the situation described and I subsequently modified the composition.

* Stanice Nula / Station Zero - collaboration of Topos Kolektiv and Czech Radio, 2023

** Hudba k siréně / Music for Sirens - collaboration between the Berg Orchestra and the Czech Radio, 2019