Anthony Burrill, Erik Kessels and Malcolm Goldie collaborate on a record compiling bird song and aeroplane sounds

Take a minute to imagine a collaboration between a world-renowned graphic designer, the founder of one of the most recognisable ad agencies in the world and a brilliant musician, producer and sound designer. What trio would you place your money on? Now pick a topic… Well, if you guessed Anthony Burrill, Erik Kessels, Malcolm Goldie and birds then come and take our job because this is the collaboration we did not see coming – but we’re thoroughly happy about it.

The result of this talented bunch coming together is Birds, a 12” limited edition vinyl record on which bird song and aeroplane recordings have been carefully arranged in an audio collage of “pleasant and unpleasant sounds”. The record creates what they describe as an “unsettling listening experience” and keen twitterers/aviation fanatics will spot the distinctive sounds of the house sparrow, Airbus A320, blue tit, Boeing 777X, wood pigeon and Cessna 172 within the soundtrack. It really is the perfect antidote for anyone missing the specific sounds of our slightly problematic modern world.

Anthony Burrill tells us about the project’s inception: “When Erik and I first spoke about making a record mixing bird song and plane noises I thought it was a ridiculous idea. We asked Malcolm Goldie to create the sound composition and sprinkle a touch of humour into the mix. Now that we’ve made the record and are ready to release it I still think it’s mad. Sometimes it’s good to make idiotic things happen.”

This isn’t the only project Burrill’s been getting involved with during lockdown, as a couple of weeks ago, we wrote about his contribution to the fantastic Kindness Will Keep Us Together campaign. It saw 11 illustrators coming together to support the Red Cross’ national call for kindness.

Birds is now available via Burrill’s online shop and features a full-colour sleeve aptly splicing together imagery of a robin and an aeroplane in flight.