Sonically and thematically, Twittering Machines is no pastorale, instead pointing to more unsettling entanglements of the human and the ‘natural’. In it, John Keats’ poem Ode to a Nightingale, translated into morse code, taps out a shifting rhythm; perhaps a persistent distress call. The poem reflects Keats’ desire to escape into the hypnotic beauty of the nightingale’s haunting song; a symbol of beauty, nature, and renewal, yet also associated with solitude and a ‘cry for help’. Kathy chose to use the poem as a metaphor for humanity’s existential struggle with the climate crisis. Her attempts to manipulate the blips and beeps to simulate birdsong renders the morse code indecipherable, Keats’ poem slowly disintegrating into a swirl of non-verbal chirps and noises, as if resisting the mechanical and the linguistic. As the longform composition evolves, elements are drawn in from music boxes, bird imitation toys, singing bowls, gongs, synth, field recordings, as well as the voices of distinguished British ornithologist Peter Holden MBE and Bavarian bird imitator Helmut Wolfertstetter, cut onto dubplate. These multiple sound sources are sampled and manipulated live using a turntable, electronics and bespoke software, constellating in shifting, dreamlike patterns. Blurring natural, analogue and digital sounds, Twittering Machines evokes the restless chatter of modern information channels, the fragility of avian ecosystems, and the present danger of environmental collapse; as samples unwind to drone-speed, the composition morphs into a lament for our fast-dying planet.