Stuart Hyatt and Eluvium chase the Indiana bat on Field Works’ graceful “Dusk Tempi”

The starting point for each composition on Ultrasonic, the eighth album in Stuart Hyatt's Field Works series, is the endangered Indiana bat. Hyatt has spent the past year following the bats, collecting field recordings that he then turned over to some of the world's best ambient musicians as part of an ambitious multi-disciplinary storytelling initiative funded by the IUPUI Arts & Humanities Institute and the National Geographic Society. The first of those compositions, premiering above, is the Eluvium collaboration "Dusk Tempi," a minimal piece that slowly folds in the bats' echolocations as Matthew Cooper's strings loop hypnotically in the foreground.

"Such an honor to be working with Eluvium again," Hyatt wrote in an email to The FADER. "'Dusk Tempi' is one of the most deeply evocative compositions I’ve ever heard from him, particularly the way the bats become instruments in their own right. Listen carefully — right at the 3:37 mark — as the bats’ plaintive calls take over. It just tears my heart open in the happiest way. I’ve spent the past year outside with my microphones chasing this endangered species through forest and field; I hope 'Dusk Tempi' brings the listener into that same magical world."

Ultrasonic is out on May 1 via Temporary Residence Ltd. On top of the Elivium collaboration, the album features contributions from 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. Each copy of the album will come with a printed copy of the 1973 Endangered Species Act. Pre-order the album here and find its full tracklist below.

Thumbnail image: Anna Powell Teerter via Riot Act Media.