Sons de la natura ibèrica by Eloïsa Matheu

Nature is full of sound. Animals—and, as we now know, many plants too—communicate through vibrations. They connect with others of their own kind, with different species, and with their environment. Life is, in essence, communication.

A soundscape brings together all these vibrations, all frequencies: the ones we can hear and the ones beyond our hearing, the faintest whispers and the loudest bursts. They come from living beings (biophony), from human activity (anthropophony), and from non-living sources like wind or water (geophony). A soundscape is, in this way, a reflection of the biodiversity of the environment and a clue to the health of ecosystems.

Listening closely to a soundscape lets us approach nature in a different way than looking at it. Sound invites us to imagine, to feel, and to step into the landscape as one more living being among many. Realizing that countless creatures are constantly sending and receiving messages—completely unaware of us—can inspire a more humble and respectful relationship with nature, far from the attitude of control and exploitation that dominates our capitalist society.

The recordings presented here capture the voices of different Iberian landscapes: from mountain forests to open steppes and Galician estuaries. Most were made in spring, at dawn, during what is known as the dawn chorus, or at night, when nocturnal birds and insects are most active. And I chose not to avoid the presence of noise, because it is, after all, part of today’s reality almost everywhere on Earth.