Now, an increasingly resonant message is that nature revives us. In the wake of the first Covid lockdowns, one of the most prevalent (and much parodied) internet memes was: "nature is healing". In our modern world, it does also feel like there has been a reawakening to the depth and diversity of nature sounds, heightened by environmental concerns, and additionally, the impact of pandemic life, making us conscious of everyday riches that we may have taken for granted. Nature's ingenuity and unpredictability has also been explored in experiments, such as French artist Céleste Boursier-Mougenot's 2010 exhibition, which brought live zebra finches and Les Paul electric guitars to London's Barbican Curve Gallery. US musician and soundscape ecologist Bernie Krause has spent decades recording and archiving natural world sounds, and collaborated on diverse projects including The Great Animal Orchestra, Symphony for Orchestra and Wild Soundscapes (2014, with British composer Richard Blackford). As recording technologies developed, artists have increasingly sampled the natural world Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara's Cantus Arcticus (1972) incorporated birdlife sounds from the Arctic Circle. Generations of international composers have created nature-inspired work, including Beethoven's 6th Symphony (1808) aka "Pastoral Symphony, or Recollections of Country Life". The rapport between nature sounds and music taps into an age-old sensation of human wellbeing, yet it continually yields new shoots. Listening back in 2021, these ensemble pieces sound elegant, wistful and serene, and somehow suspended in time. The broadcast proved a public hit, with annual performances for the following 12 years and a record release. It was May 1924, and Harrison played familiar melodies including Londonderry Air (Danny Boy) and Dvořák's Songs My Mother Taught Me, while nightingale birds responded and sang sweetly from the surrounding trees. “When you mash them up with all the ecosystems together, it sounds better, almost like it’s sort of made for the beat,” Orion says.Nearly a century ago, acclaimed British cellist Beatrice Harrison performed one of the BBC's first live outside broadcasts, from her own garden in Oxted, Surrey. He finishes up with the Madagascar long-eared owl, the red-fronted coua and the souimanga sunbird. Next, Orion chooses the lesser vassa parrot. ‘“Indri are large for lemurs, with booming voices amplified by enlarged throat pouches.” “‘A small group of indri wake up in the treetops and begin their morning shoutouts,’” Orion reads from the website description. The first animal in that ecosystem is the indri, a type of lemur. It’s called "beast mode." Orion chooses the Madagascar Rainforest. Related: Connecting with nature in the time of COVID-19įor an additional challenge, users can try to put all of the animals from the same ecosystem together with the beat designed for that environment. “It’s a way to get a good education, but also have some fun.” Mirin hopes Beast Box will be fun for anyone, but the graphics and the genre of music are geared toward youth - 12-year-old Orion Brown, for example. For instance, there’s an orangutan in a red leather jacket and matching sunglasses, and a tropical Boubou wears a gold chain and a red cap. Each time a user chooses an animal “musician,” a graphic of that creature pops up on the screen and dances to the beat. The website has a paragraph-long description of each animal and an explanation of their habitat. Put them all together over the beat and your song is complete. For example, choose a coyote and an astern whip-poor-will then add a parrot fish, a Hadada Ibis, and lastly, a blue wildebeest. Then you can select from among 30 animal sounds, as many as five at a time, to create a song. You can choose, say, Great Barrier Reef beat or Sonora Desert beat. To make a song, users open the website and choose one of seven beat tracks that Mirin created himself. Related: Scientists say nature therapies don’t just feel good - they save trillions in health costs “The fact that nature is always singing is something that is really exciting to me and I hope can create similar excitement and joy others.” “I’m just a messenger for the intricately tuned voices of the natural world,” Mirin says. “The fact that nature is always singing is something that is really exciting to me and I hope can create similar excitement and joy others.” Ben Mirin, music producer
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