Show Notes
“I prefer to live in the fantasy, not in the desperation of the crisis [...], you know?”
This latest episode of Earth.fm’s Wind Is the Original Radio podcast finds site curator Melissa Pons in conversation with Peruvian sound artist and ‘resilient designer’ Nahun Saldaña. In his work, Nahun explores the intersections between soundscapes and sound ecology, especially in relation to climate change and speculative sound future.
Together, they discuss:
The possibility of using soundscapes to drive the awareness that we all depend on the natural world - and even of using them to make companies prioritise caring for the planet rather than solely the pursuit of profit.
The ludicrousness of carbon credits (“Okay, you contaminate, but you pay for the compensation”), but the way that a similar model of mitigation could be applied to noisy manufacturers.
The impact of individualism on people’s awareness (or lack thereof) of the sounds that they make and how those sounds may impact neighbours or the broader community around them
How, in urban spaces, silence has become a new kind of luxury - one denied to people living in lower-income areas
A tendency, within the nature-sound-recording community, to fetishise tragedies in the natural world by recording “the sounds of extinction” or the last examples of particular species, despite this not curtailing those tragedies. Is there an argument for focusing, instead, on “stories of regeneration and flourishing”?
Whether sound technology can be harmful, and, if so, is it “more important to teach the kids to listen”? Nahun describes an instructive visit to a small jungle town where younger generations no longer have the ability to recognise specific sounds, such as the sounds of honey-producing bees - meaning that resources are lost as older members of the community pass away.
The power of deep listening and the notion of “politicians with a capacity for [...] deep listening”, and what groundbreaking policies might emerge from such a (sadly improbable) possibility.
Nahun's one of many projects Escuchadores: a physical structure installed in sound conservation areas conceptualized exclusively to listen and stay in the moment.
We hope that you enjoy this episode, including Nahun’s irresistible exuberance and enthusiasm! You can follow him on Instagram, and check out the work - writing, photography, video, sound art, and ambient music - on his (Spanish-language) website.
More from Wind Is the Original Radio
The Earth's orbit around the sound finds itself at the point where we, from our planet, measure the sun's relative location exactly above the Equator's, making its way South. This marks the autumnal equinox in the Northern Hemisphere and the vernal equinox and the beginning of spring in the Southern Hemisphere.
Solstice comes from the Latin solstitium - sol (sun) and sistere (to stand still): the moment when the sun appears to pause in its movement. A brief illusion of stillness. The longest day, the fullest expansion of light, and yet, from this very point, transformation has already begun. The brightest moment already carries the beginning of its own disappearance. Gathering recordings captured during different solstices, across distant places and years, this mix follows movements of appearance, disappearance, and return. Each recording holds a specific moment of listening, a fragment of a landscape that has already changed, a trace of something that cannot happen twice in the same way. Some recordings have been split and reintroduced at different moments, creating small cycles inside the composition. They disappear and resurface, carrying the memory of their previous occurrence while being transformed by their new surroundings. Like seasons, tides, or the movement of light, repetition becomes a way of sensing change rather than sameness. Different environments slowly orbit around each other: distant temporalities briefly aligning, moments of stillness revealing movement, and sounds returning as reminders that nothing ever truly stands still.
Welcome to the wind is the original radio podcast!
This hour long mix comprises of field recordings made on and around Spring Equinoxes of various years. It takes you down through the Northern Hemisphere – from my sitting room in East London to a cottage balcony in the tropical forests of Borneo. Listen for Slovenian jackals, Polish moor frogs, a Himalayan shepherd herding sheep, a hippopotamus getting ready for the night in Sierra Leone and choirs of birds singing across the globe.
We are delighted to share a special set by artist Asa 808, a 2-hour journey ideal to softly immersive oneself in the nature sounds, instruments and spoken word.