National Geographic explorer and experimental music composer Stuart Hyatt has announced the release of his new album as Field Works, Ultrasonic. The new record will release on May 1 on Temporary Residence Ltd., and will be available on CD and double-vinyl formats.

Ultrasonic is part of a broader storytelling project about the federally endangered Indiana Bat. Hyatt recorded the species’ echolocation—”akin to taking pictures of invisible people on a film camera,” he says—and enlisted various collaborators to build songs over these tones.

Among the collaborators are Eluvium, Christina Vantzou, Sarah Davachi, Ben Lukas Boysen, Machinefabriek, Mary Lattimore, Felicia Atkinson, Noveller, Chihei Hatakeyama, John Also Bennett, Kelly Moran, Taylor Deupree, Jefre Cantu-Ledesma, Julien Marchal, and Player Piano.

The project is generously funded by the IUPUI Arts & Humanities Institute and the National Geographic Society. The vinyl pressings come with an official printed booklet of The Endangered Species Act of 1973.

In 2018, Hyatt collaborated with Temporary Residence Ltd. for the release of the illustrious seven-LP Field Works box set, Metaphonics: The Complete Field Works Recordings.

Ahead to the release of Ultrasonic, Hyatt has released the first single, “Dusking Tempi.” Featuring Eluvium, the song is accompanied by an Anna Powell Teeter-directed music video. Stream the video below and pre-order a copy of Ultrasonic from Temporary Residence Ltd. here.

Tracklisting

01. Eluvium “Dusk Tempi”
02. Mary Lattimore “Silver Secrets”
03. Jefre Cantu-Ledesma “Night Swimming”
04. Machinefabriek “Kelelawar”
05. Kelly Moran “Sodalis”
06. Taylor Deupree “Echo Affinity”
07. Noveller “A Place Both Wonderful and Strange”
08. Christina Vantzou “Music for a room with vaulted ceiling”
09. Sarah Davachi “Marion”
10. Felicia Atkinson “Night vision, it touched my neck”
11. John Also Bennett “Indiana Blindfold”
12. Chihei Hatakeyama “The Circle”
13. Ben Lukas Boysen “Torpor”
14. Stuart Hyatt, Player Piano, Julien Marchal “Between the Hawthorn and Extinction”