The Time of Bells, Vol. 4:
Soundcapes of Italy, Denmark, Finland, Japan, and USA/Iraq

by Steven Feld. The fourth volume ranges the most widely, including shepherd songs, the last of the master reindeer bell makers, an urban carrilon, and three tracks exploring bells of peace.

$15
CD

Suikinkutsu:
A Japanese Underground Water Zither

by Steve Feld. Hypnotic sound composition featuring zen handwashing basin and cicadas.

$15

Liner Notes

The Sound of Light in Trees:
Bark Beetles and the Acoustic Ecology of Pinyon Pines

by David Dunn. Recorded entirely inside pine trees, Dunn reveals a previously unknown sound world.

$15

Liner Notes

The Time of Bells, Vol. 3:
Musical Bells of Accra, Ghana

by Steven Feld. This time, Feld's focus is the use of bells in modern African music. We hear the meeting of traditional music and jazz, featuring a truck horn ensemble and a group inspired by Coltrane.

$15

The Time of Bells, Vol. 2:
Soundcapes of Finland, Norway, Italy, and Greece

by Steven Feld. The second volume centers on the ways bells serve both the powers of authority (church and state), and disruption (festivals and protest).

$15
CD

RealAudio1 2:32
RealAudio2
2:13
RealAudio3 2:04

The Time of Bells, Vol. 1:
Soundcapes of Italy, Finland, Greece, and France

by Steven Feld. The first in a series of four CDs that will focus on the culturally rich sounds of bells. Church bells, animal bells, and costume bells are presented in the context of modern European life, woven with music of festivals and church services.

$15

RealAudio1
(midnight)1:45
RealAudio2
(mid-day) 3:53
RealAudio3 (night) 5:10

Day of Sound

As heard on All Things Considered

by Jason Reinier, et al. 33 recordists, four contintent, one day. A 24-hour sound portrait of the planet, about equally split between everyday sounds of human life (markets, parks, homes) and the sounds of nearby nature, with a few segments featuring human creativity with sound (wave organ, tunnel singer).

$15

Grooved Whale

NAV Ambient/Electronic Album of the Year, 2001

by Lisa Walker. Here’s a wholly new approach to making music for and from whale songs. Walker plays violin into underwater landscapes, and the resulting recordings are wonderfully rich raw material for her studio-based compositions. Aquatic canyon walls and open spaces create a cathedral-like presence to her sound, and she builds the pieces around especially interesting and well-recorded whale songs.

$15

Read Liner Notes from Caratinga

Evening
MP3

Frog Nocturne #2
MP3

White-Bearded Manakin Lek
MP3

Northern Muriqui, or Wooly Spider Monkey
MP3

Caratinga: Soundscapes from Brazil's Atlantic Rainforest

50% of gross sales goes directly to the Caratinga Biological Station

by Douglas Quin. This CD, co-produced by Conservation International and EarthEar, presents lush, neotropical soundscapes from the Caratinga Biological Station in Brazil's disappearing Atlantic Rainforest. Its nine extended tracks of natural soundscapes explore the rich acoustic ecology of the area, including intimate portraits of the daily lives of primates, focusing on the endangered muriqui (or wooly spider monkey), and also featuring howler monkeys, capuchin monkeys, marmosets, tree frogs, and many birds, creating a sonic overview of the cycle of day and night in the forest.

$15

Read Liner Notes from The Dreams of Gaia

Challenge
MP3

Elephant Slumber
MP3

Wings Over the Prairie
RealAudio 2:38
MP3 2:38

The Dreams of Gaia

New Age Journal Nature Sounds Top Pick of 1999

Various Artists. Experience the future of nature audio, with 19 of the world's premier nature sound recordists and soundscape producers as your guides. This specially-priced 2 CD set features career highlights from sound artists who are expanding the field of "nature sounds" as we've known it, forging a new creative medium that's primed for emergence into public consciousness. The accompanying 48-page booklet offers reflections from the artists, essays on soundscapes, and detailed track notes, creating a context for deeper enjoyment.

$20

Read liner notes from Forests: A Book of Hours

RealAudio 3:31
MP3 3:11

RealAudio 3:11
MP3 3:31

Forests: A Book of Hours

New Age Journal Nature Sounds Top Pick Runner-up 1999

by Douglas Quin. Forests: A Book of Hours is a groundbreaking combination of field recordings from forests in Madagascar, Africa, and Brazil, interwoven with sections of composed and improvised music that evokes connection and tunes our ears to the dynamics of nature's language. In subtle ways, even the day-cycle of "natural" sound at the heart of this 56 minute work is composed, as Quin employs various electronic, structural, and emotional approaches to "Play" the soundscape itself. Among the highlights are several African choral pieces, a trans-Atlantic meeting of primates, and the blurring of distinctions between the musics of nature and man.

$15

Read excerpts from Why do Whales and Children Sing?

RealAudio 1:33
MP3 0:46

Why Do Whales and Children Sing: A Guide to Listening in Nature

by David Dunn. How did our culture come to lose its appreciation for the voices of our planetary companions? What can paying attention to sound offer us, individually and collectively? In this wide-ranging and accessible book and accompanying cd, David Dunn—sound recordist, composer, eco-philosopher—leads us to ask such questions, while showing how sound offers connection with nature, and ourselves, in profoundly direct ways.

This book of short essays, each accompanied by a track on the cd, introduces the universal qualities of soundmaking and listening, and is filled with sudden kernels of synthesis and insight. It's a great blend of history, philosophy, personal reflection, deep ecology musings, and cultural context.

$18

Read Liner Notes from Before the War

Beluga Siren
MP3

Kingfishing
MP3

Chirp Machine
MP3

Before the War

NAV Top 100 Radio Play

by David Rothenberg and Douglas Quin. The next step in music/nature collaborations, as Nature becomes a player in the band. For many years, David Rothenberg (Unamuno, Terra Nova) has explored the meeting places of music and nature in his writing and music. Now world class field recordist Douglas Quin (Antarctica, Forests) joins him to create a new "earth jazz", improvising not over chord changes, but sound changes. Quin's soundscapes are played live with bass, percussion, and woodwinds to take the listener on a musical journey like no other.

$15

Read Liner Notes from Rainforest Soundwalks

Read Interview
with Feld about
this CD

Nulu, Night
MP3

Galo, Afternoon Night
MP3

Keafo, Morning
MP3

Rainforest Soundwalks:
Ambiences of Bosavi, Papua New Guinea

COVR "Other Music" Release of the Year runner up, 2001

Released in partnership with the Bosavi People's Fund, which receives 50% of gross sales.

by Steven Feld. Ten years after his groundbreaking Voices of the Rainforest, which presented the songs of the Bosavi people in the context of their natural soundscape, Steven Feld returns with his pure environmental sound followup. Four extended immersions into the quieter times of day draw us into the rich sonic interplay of birds, insects, amphibians, and the forests vegetation. Sublty crafted in the studio, this disc offers a hint of the near-infinite depth of the rainforest's voice.

$15