PATRICIA WRIGHT, DISTINGUISHED PROFESSOR OF ANTHROPOLOGY, STONY BROOK UNIVERSITY:
 I study lemurs in the wild in Madagascar and when I first got there, nobody had studied their calls at all. But I've been studying them for 30 years, so I pretty well have got all the languages down now.

Well, I knew about Ben, that he had been working with bird songs, and that he was incorporating them together into a new kind of music. And I thought, "why is he using bird songs when lemurs have much more interesting songs?"


BEN MIRIN, NATURALIST, BEATBOXER AND WRITER:
I started playing recordings and I was just like, "what am I listening to?" I had no idea that they were so musical and that their tones could be so evocative of different situations and emotions.

Some of them have kind of these piggish grunts, and this kind of [grunting noise] and these deep things. Others will go "oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh." Then, they'll defy your expectations and have that soaring indri call, the "oaaaaaaeiiiiip."

And when they sing together, they actually form musical cords, so for the purposes of structuring it in music, you do get a chance to both pay tribute to the fact that you're working with an indri voice, but it is also echoing the fundimental rules of this human musical system we've created.


PATRICIA WRIGHT, DISTINGUISHED PROFESSOR OF ANTHROPOLOGY, STONY BROOK UNIVERSITY:
Ah, what do I hear when I hear Ben's music? I spent a lot of time in Brooklyn, so I hear the Brooklyn beat there. But then I spent a lot more time in rainforest and what he has done to incorporate the kinds of songs from the rainforest, it's a real song of life and it brings joy to my heart. I can't wait to actually play some of Ben's music back to those lemurs in the forest.


BEN MIRIN, NATURALIST, BEATBOXER AND WRITER:
I'm just in a totally different headspace now. Having gone through the musical process of accessing this group of animals has inspired me to learn more about them, so I'm hoping that by doing this and sharing with other people, I'm hoping that I can share that inspirational process.

The inescapable reality is that lemurs are some of the most critically endangered animals on the planet. In some ways, it's wonderful to be able to preserve things through audio but, in my mind, it's pointless if it doesn't insire protection of the animal itself.


PATRICIA WRIGHT, DISTINGUISHED PROFESSOR OF ANTHROPOLOGY, STONY BROOK UNIVERSITY:
You know, Madagascar, the Malagasi people have a lot of challenges, because it's a very poor country, but you know, life is more than just cash crops and getting funding. There's also celebrations. There's also celebrating who you are, being proud of your family, being proud of your country, being proud of your heritage, and lemurs are a part of that for them.

With Ben's new innovation of bringing the lemurs into the music, this will be the glue for the conservation project. I think it's going to be a new conservation tool.