Sound Escapes - Learning to Be a Deep Listener

BirdNote^®

Sound Escapes - Learning to Be a Deep Listener

Written by Mark Bramhill

This is BirdNote.

Gordon Hempton is a sound recordist who has spent his life capturing the sounds of the natural world. He’s learned to be a deep listener, kind of like a sonic meditator. And after a lifetime of traveling the world and listening and recording, he still is amazed by what he hears.

GH: I was recently in a very remote part of the Amazon rainforest. And I just was taking it all in. // And I begin to hear the insect patterns, and how they are rhythmic and each rhythm is a different insect, especially as the light weakens and we make the transition from day into evening and night. Oh my God. And I realized this is the sound of the spinning Earth.  That this is actually like a huge clock // it’s just so elaborate and so precise that is beyond human invention.

[pot up and play zabalo ambi Let it go for 25 secs.]

Now Gordon wants to help you learn how to start listening to the workings of that massive natural clock. You can get started at birdnote dot org slash sound escapes.

For BirdNote, I’m Ashley Ahearn.

This show is made possible by Jim and Birte Falconer of Seattle, the Bobolink Foundation, Idie Ulsh, and the Horizons Foundation.

###
Bird and nature recordings by Gordon Hempton.
BirdNote’s theme music composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
Producer: John Kessler; Managing Producer: Jason Saul; Editor: Ashley Ahearn; Associate Producer: Ellen Blackstone; Assistant Producer: Mark Bramhill.
© 2019 Tune In to Nature.org   March 2019/2022   Narrator: Ashley Ahearn
 
ID# hemptong-SE-Amazon-01-2019-03-07           hemptong-SE-Amazon-01