Have you ever listened to a recording of birdsong? Or ocean waves? The howling of wolves, or thunder and rain? If you have, did you ever wonder whether nature was getting any compensation for producing that acoustic art that found its way to your speakers?
A number of musicians and environmentalists have begun raising that last question — and trying to ensure that its answer is yes. Nature sounds have long been sampled in musical tracks of all genres, but over the past few years, artists and cultural leaders have created a movement viewing nature as more than just a source of inspiration, but as a collaborator — one who deserves both credit and compensation.
One such initiative formally launched in mid-May, on the day of the full flower moon: a new record label and platform called Future Sound of Nature, dedicated to “blending the soul of electronic music with the rhythms of the Earth.” The platform is the brainchild of Eli Goldstein and Lola Villa, two electronic artists who connected as part of the group DJs for Climate Action.
“Having experienced what happens on the dance floor and the type of magic that happens there, we always believed that it was a very special place for community building around climate and acknowledging the Earth,” said Villa. “Eli and I wanted to create an organization or a platform where music could speak to that notion. And then also, how do we give nature a role in our storytelling and in our business model?”
In Future Sound of Nature’s model, 20 percent of the revenue from each release will go toward conservation or stewardship projects for the habitats featured in the recordings. The plan is for every release to have a theme, Villa said, whether that’s a location, a type of habitat, or even perhaps a single species. The first release under the new label was an EP of her own, titled Amazonía. Its eight tracks are built on field recordings she took during two visits to the Peruvian and Colombian Amazon, and 20 percent of the proceeds will go directly to the Indigenous Bora people who hosted her there.
The cover art for Villa’s Amazonía EP. Courtesy of FSON, design by Claudia Smith
That direct connection is an important part of what Goldstein and Villa are trying to create for artists and listeners alike. “It’s not just like, ‘Here’s some nature sounds, make some music,’” said Goldstein. “It’s really all about trying to create a deeper connection with the land and the communities where the music is being recorded, where nature is being collaborated with.”
Every time she has played the Amazonía set live, Villa said, she has given her audience context about the landscapes and animals that are represented in what they’re listening to — including the threats that they face. For instance: “Some of these birds are endangered. What does that do to you?” she posed. “What does that do to the listening experience?”
Future Sound of Nature is not the only initiative aimed at lifting up nature as an artist, and channeling the power of music back into her protection. On Earth Day last year, an initiative called Sounds Right officially launched in partnership with Spotify, putting “NATURE” as a creator on the platform for the first time. With nearly 2 million monthly listeners, NATURE’s artist page includes EPs of purely natural sounds — like Colombian rainforests and Nepalese rivers — and a playlist of more than 60 collaborations, where NATURE is listed as a contributor on tracks by artists ranging from Ellie Goulding to Aurora to Brian Eno.
Two months ago, the singer-songwriter Hozier became one of the latest to join this initiative. He released a new version of a song from his first album, “Like Real People Do,” incorporating the sounds of birds, crickets, thunder, and rain recorded in his home of Wicklow, Ireland. (Much to my heartbreak, Hozier could not be reached for an interview.)
“Everyone has a nature story,” said Iminza Mbwaya, the global program manager for the Sounds Right initiative, which is spearheaded by the Museum for the United Nations. As a musician herself, she has always been inspired by nature, she said. “Being able to credit it, being able to go through this creative challenge of like, ‘OK, what nature sound would I include in my song, and why would I do that?’ It opens up a world of possibility.”
Mbwaya (center) and rest of the Sounds Right team took home a Grand Prix for Innovation at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity in France last month. Courtesy of Iminza Mbwaya
That includes processing experiences with nature that aren’t necessarily positive. Rozzi, an L.A.-based singer-songwriter, got connected with Sounds Right when she was looking for a way to give back in the aftermath of the catastrophic L.A. fires earlier this year. Her brother and sister-in-law lost their home in Altadena, one of the neighborhoods that suffered the worst impacts.
“Altadena is just so special,” she said. “It’s this magical place where you can live right up against the mountains … hence why it’s a little bit vulnerable.” While it was emotionally difficult to see the charred landscape after the fire, and the place where her brother’s home once stood — only the chimney remaining — she was also surprised to find a sense of hope as she listened.
“I stood there with my phone, and it had been raining all day, so there was water dripping and so many birds and the wind in the trees,” she described. “I’m a natural optimist, so maybe this is just me — but I have to say, it felt like I was so aware of nature’s ability to come back. And I took that to be a metaphor for us as people as well. If we’re a part of nature, we must also have resilience inside of us.”
The track she created with those sounds, “Orange Skies – Chapter 2,” is also a reimagining of an old song she released in 2020, in the wake of another record-breaking fire season. Sadly, she said, the song’s message only grows more relevant. And while she has heard from a number of fans who have found it cathartic, she did not want to profit off that message. “I wanted to use that song to give back.”
Sounds Right requires that at least 50 percent of royalties from tracks featuring NATURE must go to conservation and restoration projects — although not necessarily in the places where the recordings are from. In its first year, the initiative raised $225,000, which was channeled through the foundation EarthPercent into projects in Colombia and other parts of the tropical Andes. That area was determined to be a priority, as a biodiversity hot spot that is also under significant threat. In its second year, Mbwaya said, the project will focus half its grantmaking in the Amazon Basin and half in the Congo Basin.
The idea of crediting and compensating nature as an artistic collaborator has some elements of the rights of nature movement, an effort to extend legal rights to natural entities as a means of protecting them from exploitation and harm. Both Future Sound of Nature and Sounds Right attempt to represent nature’s interests in their decisionmaking. For Future Sound of Nature, that will involve giving nature a seat on the board of directors — filled by a human representative who will change over each year. Similar mechanisms have been proposed for how we might give nature a voice in governance.
But both groups stop short of suggesting a legal framework for giving nature credit and payment beyond their individual initiatives. “Sounds Right exists primarily as an initiative within the pop culture and nature conservation space. So it’s anchored in that creative world first, and then could extend into some of the legal world,” Mbwaya said. “But our aim, our purpose, is not really to step into the legalities of establishing nature’s ownership or nature’s rights in that sense.”
Still, she is hopeful that the model could eventually spread to other creative industries — or even something like pharmaceuticals, where many ingredients are derived from plants and animals.
For the time being, both Future Sound of Nature and Sounds Right are focused on getting more artists on board and reaching more listeners. In addition to the money that every stream generates for conservation, Future Sound of Nature’s Villa is hopeful the music will help listeners connect more deeply with nature.
“I think that the beauty of music is that it can give us a language that we don’t yet have in words — as to like, how do we describe our relationship with nature?” Villa said. “In our words, it’s still very divided. Whereas music doesn’t need words for it to convey this notion that there is actually no division. You can just feel it. And that’s the goal of our work, to convey that feeling of connection.”
— Claire Elise Thompson
More exposure
A parting shot
While I sadly did not get to speak to Hozier for this story (I know he’s busy tending to his bees, OK), we can all enjoy this serene video of him singing “Like Real People Do” live by a lake in Wicklow.
Source link
Claire Elise Thompson grist.org
