August 26, 2024 • 37 mins
Join us for another A Life in Sound special with Martyn Stewart and Rapper, DJ, Zoologist, Musician, Presenter| Reconnecting diaspora to 🌿| BBC Creator in Residence NHU | Musician Louis VI.
Together, Louis and Martyn worked on his track Orange Skies as part of the United Nations Live 'Sounds Right' initiative where Nature was officially launched as an artist, Earth Day 2024. Â https://open.spotify.com/track/5g2SGvTGdCwTtu37KJskwr
Join them in conversation at they journey through the fascinating world of natural soundscapes, the fragile beauty of endangered species and how this all informs Louis' music. We kick things off with a remarkable story about capturing the elusive calls of the mountain chicken frog, and we explore the unexpected joys and challenges of field recording. Discover the irreplaceable value of audio archives housing over 100,000 files, each one a sonic treasure from a rapidly changing world.
Sound is a powerful barometer of our planet's health, and this episode underscores the deep emotional connections we have with natural audio. We reveal how modern life has created a disconnect between society and nature, emphasizing the importance of reintroducing these sounds to younger generations. Dive into the unique intersection of music and nature, where genres like hip-hop and rap are used as tools to raise awareness about climate change and biodiversity loss, conveying powerful messages that resonate on a personal level.
As we immerse ourselves in the meticulous process of capturing untouched natural sounds, you'll gain insights into the impacts of human activities such as noise pollution on animal communication. From ants to elephants, we discuss the innovative efforts to bridge interspecies communication, featuring projects like Project SETI. Reflect on the meditative experience of field recording and the stories these sounds tell about environmental destruction, from deforestation to forest fires. By the end of this episode, you'll come away with a renewed appreciation for the beauty of natural soundscapes and our collective responsibility to protect them.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Martyn Stewart (00:01):
This is Martin Stewart with A Life in Sound
from the Listening Planet, inpartnership with Biophonica
Beats.
Louis VI (00:46):
I've been listening through these sounds non-stop.
I really I cannot believeyou've got a mountain chicken.
Sound from Dominico.
Martyn Stewart (01:00):
And I never went out to get one.
Louis VI (01:02):
Yeah.
Martyn Stewart (01:02):
You know it was just there.
I never went out to get one.
Yeah, you know, it was justthere.
And the funny thing is is whenyou, when you travel around
places and you stick microphonesout, you never expect you know
to get certain things.
If you're doing speciesspecific, like hanging around
with a parabola dish and andyou're focusing on birds or
(01:24):
animals or insects or toads andfrogs, then okay, you kind of
feel you're going to getsomething like that.
But when, when I recorded thatI was talking to a biologist and
he was saying how scarce theywere and that that blows my mind
.
You know that something can befragile in this day and age it's
(01:50):
just the story of everythingyou, you see and record and meet
.
These days, you know,everything's on the precipice of
either being endangered orextinct, yeah.
So when, when you asked forthat, I went through my library
and I thought, oh god, yeah,I've got one, because you, it's
(02:10):
90, there's 97 000 files, wow.
And this project has made merevisit so many stuff.
You know someone will comealong and say do you?
You have something of Norway?
And I'm going through Norwayyesterday and thinking how the
fuck did I miss that?
You?
Louis VI (02:29):
know, there's.
Martyn Stewart (02:30):
there's lots of different things, so you
introduced me back to thechicken frog again and that's,
and that will possibly be one ofthese critters that is on the
extinct list.
Louis VI (02:43):
Yeah, I mean it really .
So it's on my dad's side,that's from dominica and it's a
really um, uh, it's mad becausethe first time I went there they
weren't really that endangered.
Um, I didn't get to see one,but they were kind of.
You know, they weren't, theywere still on the menu.
Now you can't eat them, butthey were called mountain
chicken because people used toeat them like frog's legs and
(03:07):
it's just this gigantic frog, asyou know.
But I think there's onepopulation on another nearby
island, so there's a bit of hopefor them.
So they're like trying tobreathe them back.
And they're not.
They still exist there deep,deep in the forest.
Um, did you?
(03:27):
Did you just see it and justthink, oh, I'll point never saw
it, just recorded it.
Martyn Stewart (03:32):
that that was it , and I isolated it, took away
all the critter, the insectsounds.
You suddenly come across thingsthat you took for granted years
ago and then you've you'vefound that you couldn't kind of
go back and replicate thatanymore because things have
changed so much.
Right, so 97,000 files,probably 100,000 files now, with
(04:00):
over 30,000 hours of naturalsound and God knows how many
species.
I keep saying 3,500 species ofbirds, but I'm sure it's about
4,000.
It's hard to put a number to it, but I started recording stuff
when I was 11.
Wow, and I never, ever thoughtanimals, critters, would become
(04:25):
extinct I always thought it wasdown to the dinosaur or the dodo
or you know, the irish elk.
I thought that's that's thatheld that mantle.
It's my library is thattwo-thirds extinct because you
can't go back and record thatstuff?
Louis VI (04:43):
yeah, it's, and it's so weird because, yeah, it's so
competing, like I'm in, I'm inlondon now and it's when I hear
bird song in the morning.
It's a it's that you know, it'sa significant thing to be able
to hear bird song over the soundof everything else.
It's quite nuts, um, and it'syeah, gosh, it must be such, it
(05:06):
must be just such.
You know, the animal kingdommust be just thinking, oh, for
fuck's sake, let us that for afew minutes.
Um, and it's, it's also.
It's like what, what are?
There's so much sound.
I'm so, I'm so convinced we'relike, especially in these
cityscapes where it's there'ssuch human dominated sound, I'm,
(05:26):
I'm convinced that we'resubjecting ourselves to this, um
, like evolutionary stress.
We're supposed to be hearingnatural sounds evolutionary
stress.
I like that yeah, we're supposedto be hearing these sounds of
nature.
The bird sounds everything as asign that all is well.
(05:47):
Basically, and you know, whenthings go really quiet in nature
it tends to mean something iswrong.
It means that we've got this,like you know, subconscious
evolutionary stress of beingpredated in when we're in cities
and not hearing birdsong or anyof the nature sounds or
amphibians or frogs or the fullspectrum that you get in a
(06:09):
really biodiverse place and it'sterrifying how much we're
losing a bit and it's amazingyou've heard so much.
I mean, honestly, I've got thelist in front of me here.
There's ones that are just soincredible and mad, like the
frigate bird, like I've neverheard it make that second sound.
(06:29):
Um, it's quite a sci-fisounding, but some cool sounds.
Martyn Stewart (06:46):
You know, I I go and find where they are, where
they're hanging out, um, howthey nest what roost in places.
Going back to what I was sayingabout the chicken frog, um 1990
was when I recorded that.
Louis VI (07:04):
No way.
Martyn Stewart (07:08):
That was with analog.
So there was.
I think I was using my Niagara4 and Niagara 5 at the time with
that, so when I recorded itthere was no way of separation.
You couldn't do what you do nowdigitally.
You can't go in and paint outfrequencies and you know,
replace stuff, and thank god,you know there's software where
(07:32):
I can enhance everything.
I did, you know, 1974, 1975.
So so today's technology, I canisolate those sounds.
Now, if you, if you ask me forsomething, 20 years ago I
wouldn't have been able to do it.
But you know, technology issuch that it's like photoshop
(07:55):
for sound.
You, you can go in and justeradicate all these unwanted
sounds what?
Louis VI (08:02):
what I'm interested in as well is like how so are you
going and recording, like safer,when you're going to this swamp
with this incredible name?
I can't remember the name, butit's um.
What was the name of this onethat you're going to tomorrow?
Okie finokie okie finokie swampsounds like something out of
like a dr zeus book the lasttime I was up there was um 2005.
Martyn Stewart (08:29):
Wow, and it was.
It was march of 2005.
So I can go up to the aroundthose areas and record and then
compare the two of them.
So what's that?
My maths are shit.
That's 20 years ago, right,nearly 19 years ago.
But the change would be in 19years and see what what's
happening, and a lot of it isman-made interference and a lot
(08:54):
of it is climate change as well.
Time I walk the dog in themornings there's a little bit of
habitat where it's about a twomile round loop and it's all old
florida palm and ferns and oak.
It's quite beautiful really,but this, this year and last
(09:16):
year I would say there'sprobably 40 percent less species
that that dwell in those places.
Audio is kind of like that.
Audio is the barometer of thehealth of the planet.
Louis VI (09:30):
Always, always, believe that you know uh, yeah,
I really believe that too.
If you I guess it's like youyou notice it first.
Um, and that's that's the weirdthing as well is, like, I think
I think the reason I'm excitedabout all this stuff that we've
got to do and, you know, doingthis, this remix as well is, I
(09:51):
do feel, like the thing withimage and the thing with, like
pictures and video is it's allamazing and beautiful and we're
very visual creatures, but, um,sound is the one thing that
really, like sounds is the thingthat can make you cry or or
feel any emotion when you watchfilm or, like I always say, I
(10:13):
hate horror films and if youturn off the sound, it's it's
hard for you know, we there's adisconnect.
Martyn Stewart (10:36):
That's happened, it seems like over 10 years.
We've disconnected from nature.
We've gone more.
We're always a visual species,as you say.
We're always that way.
But these projects that we setup with artists like you, to me
(10:57):
it's like a doorway opening upand saying let's reintroduce or
not reintroduce, because a lotof people have never been
introduced in the first place.
But let me introduce you intothis beautiful world, and we
don't have to paint a picture,just show it.
So I'm really happy that you'vegrabbed the baton and looked at
(11:23):
something, because obviouslyit's embedded in you your
ancestry, your history, yourconnections with the motherland.
It can only be a good thing,right, yeah?
Louis VI (11:38):
I hope so.
I mean, god, thank you, man,I'm very humbled that you
listened and humbled that therewas some stuff that spoke to you
.
I mean I do.
Yeah, I agree in the sense.
There's so much to talk aboutin the world and I've always
been such a nature geek and itwas funny because it took my
(12:01):
sister going oh, for fuck's sake, you need to just be your
fullest, geekiest self in themusic as well and just combine
both of them.
Um, like just before and duringcovid, for me to really lean
into it.
But um, yeah, that's that's.
You know, I'm really humbled byyour words and I think I do
(12:26):
think there's some, there'ssomething really powerful and
profound to play, like, I think,you know, with climate change
and biodiversity loss.
It is a communications thingand I think a lot of the
communications have lackedcreativity and being like well,
and I think this is the.
This is a really interestingspace.
(12:48):
We've got the sound of thisplanet and it's funny that you
say you don't listen to muchmusic because I, if I'm in
nature, I'm the first person tosay please turn off your speaker
, or like.
So I just I'm like the part ofthe being in nature is the sound
for you it must.
It's obviously basically thewhole deal and it's if you can
(13:11):
combine that, I think, withmusic somehow and you know, this
is the thing that I've got towork at, work out and I'm trying
to work out is is combiningmusic in a way where you don't I
don't want to change the naturesounds too much, because that's
the beauty of it, that's itsown music.
We'll put it in a place and andtry and tell a story that brings
(13:35):
in one people that have neverbeen spoken to about this stuff,
like you're saying, youngpeople who are disconnected, if
they've even been connected.
We have a deep emotionalresponse to the sound of this
planet because it's, you know,it's part of us and I think, um,
if there's a way we can makethat get out into music, that's
(13:58):
something that billions ofpeople digest on the planet, and
I think the thing that'sspecial about hip-hop is it's
always been and and rap, and,and the poetry of it is it's
always been a way of sheddinglight or interpreting something,
um, using yeah, using music,but also using words and poetry.
Martyn Stewart (14:24):
I think you can tap into something now that's
totally unique in this genre.
Louis VI (14:31):
Yeah.
Martyn Stewart (14:33):
You're an educated lad too, and you're
connected with nature, and I cansee the love in you as well,
you know.
That can only give me hope.
Louis VI (14:42):
Yeah.
Martyn Stewart (14:43):
And there's a duty that I've always stated.
I always use this phrase myrent for being on the planet is
to speak up for the animals.
That's the cost of everythingand it has to be that way.
However, we're suffering, theystill haven't got a voice and
(15:03):
finding a way of them talkingthrough music, through different
genres, through poetry, throughwhatever has to be.
It just has to be, and youcan't love what you don't
understand.
You can't protect what youdon't understand, protect what
(15:25):
you don't understand.
You've got to, you've got tofind a way of loving something
like that.
I mean, for me, beauty is in inthe eyes of the beholder.
I I find ants to elephants themost beautiful thing, and they
all have something to offer andthis beautiful cycle of life
that that we've disrupted.
(15:47):
There has to be somethingthat's got to change quite
dramatically at the moment.
But there's a lot of, a lot ofspecies that from there that we
can start chucking a whole lotof stuff.
Even ocean sounds that you knowin.
(16:07):
Yeah, you've got fabulous watersaround there yeah you get a
hydrophone and you drop it in.
I've got a 50 foot cable and Idrop it in lots of places like
um, coral reef and lots ofcetaceans, lots of fish sounds,
a lot of stuff under the beachitself.
(16:28):
You know, dig a hole and drop ahydrophone in and listen to the
water come over the top.
It's just some crazy sounds,some amazing stuff.
I can start filling up a box,you know.
I know you you ask for specificsounds, but I can start giving
you some other stuff to to knockyour creative juices going is I
(16:49):
want to.
Louis VI (16:51):
I want to hear all the .
I mean, god, I've got so manythings to say, but the I want to
hear all the.
The weirder less requestedsounds, for sure I want to hear
all of that.
Martyn Stewart (17:04):
There's some wonderful things, and I'm sure
you'll turn them into evenbetter things.
Louis VI (17:09):
Yeah, I just, I feel like, yeah, I just think this,
it's so amazing what you've doneand got just so many amazing
sounds and masses.
I could just I could have livedquite a happy life, I think,
just listening througheverything you've got.
Martyn Stewart (17:26):
Bless you, bless you, man.
Louis VI (17:29):
Yeah, I mean even God the nightjar.
You got here the orangutan.
I had no idea they sounded likethat.
Martyn Stewart (17:36):
I've not had the .
Well, listen to things like theinjury and some, some amazing
places around the world.
I loved it in papua new guinea.
I loved it in borneo.
I loved it in indonesiapolynesia.
Louis VI (17:56):
I was so lucky to go to places kind of coming back to
sound the thing and culture.
We're talking about, how soundand culture is hopefully going
to be the thing that persuadesus as humans, but it's like the
thing that we're losing, thatit's almost the saddest part,
because we've barely started toscratch the surface of it is the
(18:17):
sound and cultures of thesespecies.
Like I'm always thinking aboutwhat you know, we haven't even
had an interspecies conversationproperly yet.
It's like what cultures and andmusic and sounds are we losing
from species that we don't evenknow yet and don't even
understand?
Like I've recorded some spermwhales, um clicking in dominica
(18:39):
because it's just there's somany of them and it's that's a
beautiful, hopeful story becausethey just made the first ever
sperm whale marine park there.
But the guy was saying they havethe biggest um language center
of any animal in the world andthey already got huge brains and
(19:00):
they speak in an environmentwhere sound as you will know,
sound way better than me, butsound travels so well in the
medium of water, so they'rehaving a conversation like we're
having, um, but at distancesthat are spanning miles, but
it's like they're in the sameand able to use that medium and
(19:21):
they've been around for so muchlonger than us, for literally
like millions of years.
They've had all that time todevelop language.
They're having some crazyconversations and we haven't
even tried.
We're not even chatting to them.
There's the project for ProjectSETI, where they're trying to
(19:41):
use AI to talk with them andthey're getting quite close and
it's getting to the point like,what do we say?
But it might be to the pointthat they're so advanced.
You know, this is the thingit's like.
Put it into human terms, it'slike we think we're the most
intelligent species becausewe've built all this.
Martyn Stewart (19:57):
Maybe that's the highest sign of the animals
have had to change the way theycommunicate with each other
because of us as well you know,bird species have had to change
their frequencies to be heard tocarry on breeding yeah there's
(20:20):
so many examples of that.
You think, if, if a black-cappedchickadee lives on the mainland
in mid-usa, why does it sounddifferently on martha's vineyard
, for instance?
And you look at it and youthink, well, there's a.
It's a few decibels higher thanthe other guy.
Why is that?
(20:42):
And then, when you startlooking at the background of
there, and there's, there's, uh,man-made noises which follow
that same frequency, and thebird has had to change the way
it communicates to be heard.
So many examples of thatthroughout the world.
Things have changed, frequencieshave changed by animals.
They know how to do, we justdon't know how to to listen.
(21:05):
Yeah, talk and we can talk andwe can do everything we want,
but we don't listen.
We experience things, but wehave the attention span of a
gnat.
We need so much things to keepour existence pure for ourselves
and stimulate our minds, butnature has been doing this for a
(21:30):
time.
On a memorial, you know thatnature shows us how, how we live
, how we, how we live side byside with each other, how a
squirrel is never going tocomplain that a rabbit's under
its tree and a frog's nevergoing to bother about a, a bee
(21:50):
that's pollinating it.
But we have problems withsomething coming into our
territories and we destroy whatwe don't understand.
And we have to startunderstanding very quickly,
because what we have left I theyhave to be protected, just has
to be.
It's their earth too yeah, thatjust.
Louis VI (22:13):
There's a fascination that could be triggered and I
think sound is such a quick wayto like, bypass all the
information and all the otherusual roadblocks and get
straight to the, to the core ofit, which is the feeling of
being in nature.
Like you could put on all thevr goggles as well, like and
immerse yourself in a naturalspace, but without the actual
(22:36):
sound and the smell and theactual feeling of it.
It's just, it's not the same umsanitized.
Yeah, yeah sure where, where Igot a question who made me think
where have you recorded thatyou found has stayed?
Is there any way you'verecorded that stayed like
sounding very natural.
Martyn Stewart (22:59):
Wow, yeah, wow, maybe places like the Arctic
National Wildlife Refuge,because the population up there
still is minimal.
I mean, there are nativevillages like which have a small
population, but you can't put aroad through the Arctic
(23:23):
National Wildlife Refuge andthere's millions of acres of
wilderness.
But I've been up there fivetimes, on the coastal plain, on
the brook side of the mountainin Sunset Pass, along the
(23:43):
Congucut River, and oneparticular time when they
dropped me out on a bush planeand had all my recording gear
and food and I was amongst thetundra and bears and musk, oxen
and arctic fox and a millionspecies of birds, it seemed.
(24:05):
But the closest, I think, towilderness has to be up in
Alaska.
Louis VI (24:15):
Wow, okay.
Closest, I think, to wildernessis has to be up in alaska.
Wow, okay.
And what does your date like?
What is what is like arecording session look like for
you?
Is it?
Are you going off for for weekslike this on your own and just
hitting record?
Martyn Stewart (24:29):
I talk a lot to myself, I do a lot of talking.
I I set out a protocol that Ithink if I can do the dawns and
then middays and then eveningchoruses, they're kind of go
hand in hand and you can compareagainst each other like that.
(24:49):
And I set my protocol the same.
I configure every singlemicrophone the same.
I configure the recordingequipment the same, because you
can't adjust levels and saythat's going to be science later
on.
You've got to have somethingthat's consistent.
So I will record for an hour inthe morning and an hour in
(25:12):
midday, and then evening I'll doan hour.
Or, you know, just sit there onmy seat for a couple of three
hours with headphones on,writing down what I hear, and
I'm not expecting anythingdifferent, it's just soundscape
and it's the greatest form ofmeditation you could ever.
(25:35):
You know if, if you're sittingthere and you're just listening
to, there's no such thing asquiet, but it's that tranquil
space that you're allowed towalk into.
And um, that's when I used tohave the problems.
If you hear the plane coming in, god, I wouldn't turn that off
(25:57):
until the plane went.
I kept it going becauseobviously it's.
It's science, scientific data.
There's flight paths going on.
Is that flight path beingpresent over the last five years
?
Is it this that so manyquestions and they also sound is
also used for impact statementsas well.
(26:18):
You know environmental impactstatements yeah but the protocol
has to be the same way and andI've recorded that way since I
was 19, I've kept that kind.
The levels are always.
If it's quiet, the levels arestill the same.
I make sure I put a an audibletone at the beginning of it so
(26:41):
that if I did change the gain ona recording I could reference
the 30 db tone, go back to thatto have it back to its present
state wow so I'm prettydisciplined when it goes out.
When I'm doing species specificstuff, I'm walking around with a
parabola dish and a good mateof mine in sweden, who built
(27:04):
these uh to linger dishes, mademy life a lot better than
walking around with a squirrelbaffler with a metal dish and
every insect is.
It was like a dinner bell goingoff, bing, you know, and then
you're walking through woods andforests and you're getting
bangs and things and stuff on onthe dish.
So he created this, this uhpolythene dish which you could
(27:29):
fold up and stick it in theplane and just fly off, unroll
it and then record stuff.
Those are cool times and if youask me what's my favorite
recording, I always state thelast one I did, because it's
just impossible to say which wasyour best one.
It's like saying if you go to adesert island, what's your five
(27:53):
albums you're going to takewith you and you think just five
.
Come on, you can't do it.
Louis VI (27:59):
It's interesting to know what to do.
I'm going to have a play.
I was quite interested to knowabout the Forest Palm Oil Fires
MP3 that you sent.
Palm oil fires MP3 that yousent.
Is that the same place, movingfrom what sounds like very
(28:24):
nature, pristine habitat, tologging to then fire, or was it
the soundscape you created?
It sounded amazing.
Martyn Stewart (28:34):
I created that soundscape based on actual audio
.
So the first time I went toKantanaman Canyon in Borneo,
you've got this fantastic riverthat just glides through the
forest and then in the morningyou hear the gibbons and the
(28:57):
animals chorusing and then thatdefinite chainsaw sound, which
some of the saddest sounds youcan ever hear.
Louis VI (29:08):
It's just the of of their beautiful home I was
wondering how there's like therewas a few minds when.
When ginny, there's a fewthoughts in my mind when ginny
originally asked me and I waslike how do I do this orange
guys thing?
Because obviously, from thename orange guys, I'm talking
(29:28):
about forest fires, both onesthat have happened naturally but
too much due to climate change,and ones that have been set off
purposely, and ones that havebeen happened to, like clear
forest, like even in amazon orborneo, and like how to best
tell that story?
Like is it that we like?
(29:49):
I really like this soundscape?
This could be that soundscapecould move throughout the length
of the track where it starts,uh, pristine, and it ends by
burning, um, it could also belike start where, yeah, it's at
the beginning, sounds rich andit's got all these different, um
, animals that you've sent thatall live in in various different
(30:12):
forest habitats, whether that'stogether or put into, sectioned
off into different ecosystemsor parts of the world, and then
we move into more.
Just, silence could be aninteresting way to do it as well
I think that would be such apowerful message.
Martyn Stewart (30:31):
I message.
With that I mean your words.
Behind all that stuff, you'retelling the story and, yeah, you
, you could talk about borneo.
You could talk about therainforest amazonia.
You could talk about howcolumbia is being taken apart.
You could talk about most partsof africa.
(30:53):
You could talk about the borealforest.
The boreal forests are the mostimportant forests above the
amazonian rainforest and that'sbeen deforested something like
80 percent.
They've lost 80% of the borealforest around Northern
hemisphere.
(31:13):
I think that I think thatthat's a powerful message.
It's almost like what was that?
You'd be 40 track.
They did, and the title was, soyou know, dramatic the earth
lies screaming, dies screaming,was that it?
And she's, she's doing that allthe time, you know yeah it's
(31:36):
those silent screams.
So when you, when you'retalking about logging and
burning forests and taking treesaway and then left with that
silence, those are silentscreams yeah, but I think if,
how do we get this into into asong?
Louis VI (31:57):
because it's I've got, uh, another friend of mine's
gonna feature on it.
He's a big artist and I'm gonnalike his verse will be the new
verse added on the end and he'ssuper smart as well.
Mick jenkins, who's a massiverapper in the us, already
smashed it with his verse.
Um, and I, you know, I'm notalmost like, do I could use some
(32:21):
parts of it literally within,maybe as a percussive thing or
in the melody, experiment withthat, but it could be quite
amazing to have it, as you know,you're describing as this
orchestra, with parts literallybeing chopped out and then all
burnt out even, could be a goodway of doing it.
(32:44):
There's something, especiallyas the tracks, called orange
skies and yeah, there's theweirdly beautiful but horrific
sign of orange skies and what itactually means.
Um, and all the fires around theworld.
I really like the idea with theborneo or the boreal and it
(33:07):
changing from sounding, yeah,healthy to cut down and coming
less and less and maybe endingwith the fire or the sound of it
, and then even the sound of itburnt and how quiet it is could
be really powerful for thatspecific track and I mean it's
(33:29):
asking a lot.
I think any Borneo or theborough forest would be
incredible, but it could be aninteresting one to link it.
If you I don't know if you hadanything of like.
Um, I don't know if there'sanything in the madagascan
forest, I know it's happening alot there as well yes, I've
recorded in madagascar reallyyes.
(33:52):
So I think that, if anything youway, we could create that
soundscape for it being um,sounding pristine to them,
dipping, maybe being burnt outon fire, to then silent what
kind of duration are you lookingat?
Martyn Stewart (34:09):
Would you rather have a stem of fire, a stem of
beauty?
You know everything going off,cacophony of sounds, a stem with
logging, a stem of silence?
Or do you want me to mix thatto you?
Louis VI (34:34):
Maybe that's the best way, but it could be quite
interesting.
It could be quite interestinghearing your take on the mix
I'll do.
Martyn Stewart (34:40):
I'll do a mix then.
Louis VI (34:43):
Yeah, I'll do a mix of three different places and see
what you think yeah, I thinkthat'd be really cool and I
think and it might be, I don'tknow it might be more fun.
It's kind of a bit morecreative on your side as well I
would love to do that.
Martyn Stewart (34:59):
I love that title too orange guys yeah, just
say so much I'll change.
Louis VI (35:08):
I'm going to change the productions a little bit, um
, maybe even a lot, depending onon the soundscape.
I mean, it would be amazing.
I want to give as much room tothe nature as I can, whilst
keeping it feeling like a song,which is going to be an
interesting experiment.
I think, um, I'm definitelybiased towards the nature sounds
(35:29):
.
Martyn Stewart (35:31):
That's cool, that's absolutely cool.
Louis VI (35:36):
Well, I'll work on that.
That'd be ideal, god, I can'twait to hear it.
But this Borneo one what I'mgoing to do, if it's all right
with you, I'm going to drop thatinto the current track and have
a play to see how that movementsounds.
Of course, that um and then andthen, yeah, send me whatever
(35:58):
you come up with.
Martyn Stewart (36:01):
Louis, you're an amazing bloke.
Louis VI (36:04):
So are you man?
Bloody hell, it's an absolutehonour to meet you, man.
I mean, I knew we were going toget on from uh, from listening
to your recordings and stuff.
You're a bit of a bloody legend, man legend my arse.
Martyn Stewart (36:18):
God bless you.
Louis VI (36:21):
I think you are.
I think nature would be pretty.
Mother nature would be pretty,certainly calling you a legend
for how much you've recorded hersounds, man well, if she calls
me that, I'll accept it yeahyou've just experienced another
(36:42):
journey on the listening planetpodcast.
Martyn Stewart (36:46):
Dive deeper into the world of natural sounds by
connecting with us online.
Visit our website or follow uson social media.
Let the symphony of naturesurround you wherever you go.
Happy listening.
This is Martin Stewart with A Life in Sound
from the Listening Planet, inpartnership with Biophonica
Beats.
Louis VI (00:46):
I've been listening through these sounds non-stop.
I really I cannot believeyou've got a mountain chicken.
Sound from Dominico.
Martyn Stewart (01:00):
And I never went out to get one.
Louis VI (01:02):
Yeah.
Martyn Stewart (01:02):
You know it was just there.
I never went out to get one.
Yeah, you know, it was justthere.
And the funny thing is is whenyou, when you travel around
places and you stick microphonesout, you never expect you know
to get certain things.
If you're doing speciesspecific, like hanging around
with a parabola dish and andyou're focusing on birds or
(01:24):
animals or insects or toads andfrogs, then okay, you kind of
feel you're going to getsomething like that.
But when, when I recorded thatI was talking to a biologist and
he was saying how scarce theywere and that that blows my mind
.
You know that something can befragile in this day and age it's
(01:50):
just the story of everythingyou, you see and record and meet
.
These days, you know,everything's on the precipice of
either being endangered orextinct, yeah.
So when, when you asked forthat, I went through my library
and I thought, oh god, yeah,I've got one, because you, it's
(02:10):
90, there's 97 000 files, wow.
And this project has made merevisit so many stuff.
You know someone will comealong and say do you?
You have something of Norway?
And I'm going through Norwayyesterday and thinking how the
fuck did I miss that?
You?
Louis VI (02:29):
know, there's.
Martyn Stewart (02:30):
there's lots of different things, so you
introduced me back to thechicken frog again and that's,
and that will possibly be one ofthese critters that is on the
extinct list.
Louis VI (02:43):
Yeah, I mean it really .
So it's on my dad's side,that's from dominica and it's a
really um, uh, it's mad becausethe first time I went there they
weren't really that endangered.
Um, I didn't get to see one,but they were kind of.
You know, they weren't, theywere still on the menu.
Now you can't eat them, butthey were called mountain
chicken because people used toeat them like frog's legs and
(03:07):
it's just this gigantic frog, asyou know.
But I think there's onepopulation on another nearby
island, so there's a bit of hopefor them.
So they're like trying tobreathe them back.
And they're not.
They still exist there deep,deep in the forest.
Um, did you?
(03:27):
Did you just see it and justthink, oh, I'll point never saw
it, just recorded it.
Martyn Stewart (03:32):
that that was it , and I isolated it, took away
all the critter, the insectsounds.
You suddenly come across thingsthat you took for granted years
ago and then you've you'vefound that you couldn't kind of
go back and replicate thatanymore because things have
changed so much.
Right, so 97,000 files,probably 100,000 files now, with
(04:00):
over 30,000 hours of naturalsound and God knows how many
species.
I keep saying 3,500 species ofbirds, but I'm sure it's about
4,000.
It's hard to put a number to it, but I started recording stuff
when I was 11.
Wow, and I never, ever thoughtanimals, critters, would become
(04:25):
extinct I always thought it wasdown to the dinosaur or the dodo
or you know, the irish elk.
I thought that's that's thatheld that mantle.
It's my library is thattwo-thirds extinct because you
can't go back and record thatstuff?
Louis VI (04:43):
yeah, it's, and it's so weird because, yeah, it's so
competing, like I'm in, I'm inlondon now and it's when I hear
bird song in the morning.
It's a it's that you know, it'sa significant thing to be able
to hear bird song over the soundof everything else.
It's quite nuts, um, and it'syeah, gosh, it must be such, it
(05:06):
must be just such.
You know, the animal kingdommust be just thinking, oh, for
fuck's sake, let us that for afew minutes.
Um, and it's, it's also.
It's like what, what are?
There's so much sound.
I'm so, I'm so convinced we'relike, especially in these
cityscapes where it's there'ssuch human dominated sound, I'm,
(05:26):
I'm convinced that we'resubjecting ourselves to this, um
, like evolutionary stress.
We're supposed to be hearingnatural sounds evolutionary
stress.
I like that yeah, we're supposedto be hearing these sounds of
nature.
The bird sounds everything as asign that all is well.
(05:47):
Basically, and you know, whenthings go really quiet in nature
it tends to mean something iswrong.
It means that we've got this,like you know, subconscious
evolutionary stress of beingpredated in when we're in cities
and not hearing birdsong or anyof the nature sounds or
amphibians or frogs or the fullspectrum that you get in a
(06:09):
really biodiverse place and it'sterrifying how much we're
losing a bit and it's amazingyou've heard so much.
I mean, honestly, I've got thelist in front of me here.
There's ones that are just soincredible and mad, like the
frigate bird, like I've neverheard it make that second sound.
(06:29):
Um, it's quite a sci-fisounding, but some cool sounds.
Martyn Stewart (06:46):
You know, I I go and find where they are, where
they're hanging out, um, howthey nest what roost in places.
Going back to what I was sayingabout the chicken frog, um 1990
was when I recorded that.
Louis VI (07:04):
No way.
Martyn Stewart (07:08):
That was with analog.
So there was.
I think I was using my Niagara4 and Niagara 5 at the time with
that, so when I recorded itthere was no way of separation.
You couldn't do what you do nowdigitally.
You can't go in and paint outfrequencies and you know,
replace stuff, and thank god,you know there's software where
(07:32):
I can enhance everything.
I did, you know, 1974, 1975.
So so today's technology, I canisolate those sounds.
Now, if you, if you ask me forsomething, 20 years ago I
wouldn't have been able to do it.
But you know, technology issuch that it's like photoshop
(07:55):
for sound.
You, you can go in and justeradicate all these unwanted
sounds what?
Louis VI (08:02):
what I'm interested in as well is like how so are you
going and recording, like safer,when you're going to this swamp
with this incredible name?
I can't remember the name, butit's um.
What was the name of this onethat you're going to tomorrow?
Okie finokie okie finokie swampsounds like something out of
like a dr zeus book the lasttime I was up there was um 2005.
Martyn Stewart (08:29):
Wow, and it was.
It was march of 2005.
So I can go up to the aroundthose areas and record and then
compare the two of them.
So what's that?
My maths are shit.
That's 20 years ago, right,nearly 19 years ago.
But the change would be in 19years and see what what's
happening, and a lot of it isman-made interference and a lot
(08:54):
of it is climate change as well.
Time I walk the dog in themornings there's a little bit of
habitat where it's about a twomile round loop and it's all old
florida palm and ferns and oak.
It's quite beautiful really,but this, this year and last
(09:16):
year I would say there'sprobably 40 percent less species
that that dwell in those places.
Audio is kind of like that.
Audio is the barometer of thehealth of the planet.
Louis VI (09:30):
Always, always, believe that you know uh, yeah,
I really believe that too.
If you I guess it's like youyou notice it first.
Um, and that's that's the weirdthing as well is, like, I think
I think the reason I'm excitedabout all this stuff that we've
got to do and, you know, doingthis, this remix as well is, I
(09:51):
do feel, like the thing withimage and the thing with, like
pictures and video is it's allamazing and beautiful and we're
very visual creatures, but, um,sound is the one thing that
really, like sounds is the thingthat can make you cry or or
feel any emotion when you watchfilm or, like I always say, I
(10:13):
hate horror films and if youturn off the sound, it's it's
hard for you know, we there's adisconnect.
Martyn Stewart (10:36):
That's happened, it seems like over 10 years.
We've disconnected from nature.
We've gone more.
We're always a visual species,as you say.
We're always that way.
But these projects that we setup with artists like you, to me
(10:57):
it's like a doorway opening upand saying let's reintroduce or
not reintroduce, because a lotof people have never been
introduced in the first place.
But let me introduce you intothis beautiful world, and we
don't have to paint a picture,just show it.
So I'm really happy that you'vegrabbed the baton and looked at
(11:23):
something, because obviouslyit's embedded in you your
ancestry, your history, yourconnections with the motherland.
It can only be a good thing,right, yeah?
Louis VI (11:38):
I hope so.
I mean, god, thank you, man,I'm very humbled that you
listened and humbled that therewas some stuff that spoke to you
.
I mean I do.
Yeah, I agree in the sense.
There's so much to talk aboutin the world and I've always
been such a nature geek and itwas funny because it took my
(12:01):
sister going oh, for fuck's sake, you need to just be your
fullest, geekiest self in themusic as well and just combine
both of them.
Um, like just before and duringcovid, for me to really lean
into it.
But um, yeah, that's that's.
You know, I'm really humbled byyour words and I think I do
(12:26):
think there's some, there'ssomething really powerful and
profound to play, like, I think,you know, with climate change
and biodiversity loss.
It is a communications thingand I think a lot of the
communications have lackedcreativity and being like well,
and I think this is the.
This is a really interestingspace.
(12:48):
We've got the sound of thisplanet and it's funny that you
say you don't listen to muchmusic because I, if I'm in
nature, I'm the first person tosay please turn off your speaker
, or like.
So I just I'm like the part ofthe being in nature is the sound
for you it must.
It's obviously basically thewhole deal and it's if you can
(13:11):
combine that, I think, withmusic somehow and you know, this
is the thing that I've got towork at, work out and I'm trying
to work out is is combiningmusic in a way where you don't I
don't want to change the naturesounds too much, because that's
the beauty of it, that's itsown music.
We'll put it in a place and andtry and tell a story that brings
(13:35):
in one people that have neverbeen spoken to about this stuff,
like you're saying, youngpeople who are disconnected, if
they've even been connected.
We have a deep emotionalresponse to the sound of this
planet because it's, you know,it's part of us and I think, um,
if there's a way we can makethat get out into music, that's
(13:58):
something that billions ofpeople digest on the planet, and
I think the thing that'sspecial about hip-hop is it's
always been and and rap, and,and the poetry of it is it's
always been a way of sheddinglight or interpreting something,
um, using yeah, using music,but also using words and poetry.
Martyn Stewart (14:24):
I think you can tap into something now that's
totally unique in this genre.
Louis VI (14:31):
Yeah.
Martyn Stewart (14:33):
You're an educated lad too, and you're
connected with nature, and I cansee the love in you as well,
you know.
That can only give me hope.
Louis VI (14:42):
Yeah.
Martyn Stewart (14:43):
And there's a duty that I've always stated.
I always use this phrase myrent for being on the planet is
to speak up for the animals.
That's the cost of everythingand it has to be that way.
However, we're suffering, theystill haven't got a voice and
(15:03):
finding a way of them talkingthrough music, through different
genres, through poetry, throughwhatever has to be.
It just has to be, and youcan't love what you don't
understand.
You can't protect what youdon't understand, protect what
(15:25):
you don't understand.
You've got to, you've got tofind a way of loving something
like that.
I mean, for me, beauty is in inthe eyes of the beholder.
I I find ants to elephants themost beautiful thing, and they
all have something to offer andthis beautiful cycle of life
that that we've disrupted.
(15:47):
There has to be somethingthat's got to change quite
dramatically at the moment.
But there's a lot of, a lot ofspecies that from there that we
can start chucking a whole lotof stuff.
Even ocean sounds that you knowin.
(16:07):
Yeah, you've got fabulous watersaround there yeah you get a
hydrophone and you drop it in.
I've got a 50 foot cable and Idrop it in lots of places like
um, coral reef and lots ofcetaceans, lots of fish sounds,
a lot of stuff under the beachitself.
(16:28):
You know, dig a hole and drop ahydrophone in and listen to the
water come over the top.
It's just some crazy sounds,some amazing stuff.
I can start filling up a box,you know.
I know you you ask for specificsounds, but I can start giving
you some other stuff to to knockyour creative juices going is I
(16:49):
want to.
Louis VI (16:51):
I want to hear all the .
I mean, god, I've got so manythings to say, but the I want to
hear all the.
The weirder less requestedsounds, for sure I want to hear
all of that.
Martyn Stewart (17:04):
There's some wonderful things, and I'm sure
you'll turn them into evenbetter things.
Louis VI (17:09):
Yeah, I just, I feel like, yeah, I just think this,
it's so amazing what you've doneand got just so many amazing
sounds and masses.
I could just I could have livedquite a happy life, I think,
just listening througheverything you've got.
Martyn Stewart (17:26):
Bless you, bless you, man.
Louis VI (17:29):
Yeah, I mean even God the nightjar.
You got here the orangutan.
I had no idea they sounded likethat.
Martyn Stewart (17:36):
I've not had the .
Well, listen to things like theinjury and some, some amazing
places around the world.
I loved it in papua new guinea.
I loved it in borneo.
I loved it in indonesiapolynesia.
Louis VI (17:56):
I was so lucky to go to places kind of coming back to
sound the thing and culture.
We're talking about, how soundand culture is hopefully going
to be the thing that persuadesus as humans, but it's like the
thing that we're losing, thatit's almost the saddest part,
because we've barely started toscratch the surface of it is the
(18:17):
sound and cultures of thesespecies.
Like I'm always thinking aboutwhat you know, we haven't even
had an interspecies conversationproperly yet.
It's like what cultures and andmusic and sounds are we losing
from species that we don't evenknow yet and don't even
understand?
Like I've recorded some spermwhales, um clicking in dominica
(18:39):
because it's just there's somany of them and it's that's a
beautiful, hopeful story becausethey just made the first ever
sperm whale marine park there.
But the guy was saying they havethe biggest um language center
of any animal in the world andthey already got huge brains and
(19:00):
they speak in an environmentwhere sound as you will know,
sound way better than me, butsound travels so well in the
medium of water, so they'rehaving a conversation like we're
having, um, but at distancesthat are spanning miles, but
it's like they're in the sameand able to use that medium and
(19:21):
they've been around for so muchlonger than us, for literally
like millions of years.
They've had all that time todevelop language.
They're having some crazyconversations and we haven't
even tried.
We're not even chatting to them.
There's the project for ProjectSETI, where they're trying to
(19:41):
use AI to talk with them andthey're getting quite close and
it's getting to the point like,what do we say?
But it might be to the pointthat they're so advanced.
You know, this is the thingit's like.
Put it into human terms, it'slike we think we're the most
intelligent species becausewe've built all this.
Martyn Stewart (19:57):
Maybe that's the highest sign of the animals
have had to change the way theycommunicate with each other
because of us as well you know,bird species have had to change
their frequencies to be heard tocarry on breeding yeah there's
(20:20):
so many examples of that.
You think, if, if a black-cappedchickadee lives on the mainland
in mid-usa, why does it sounddifferently on martha's vineyard
, for instance?
And you look at it and youthink, well, there's a.
It's a few decibels higher thanthe other guy.
Why is that?
(20:42):
And then, when you startlooking at the background of
there, and there's, there's, uh,man-made noises which follow
that same frequency, and thebird has had to change the way
it communicates to be heard.
So many examples of thatthroughout the world.
Things have changed, frequencieshave changed by animals.
They know how to do, we justdon't know how to to listen.
(21:05):
Yeah, talk and we can talk andwe can do everything we want,
but we don't listen.
We experience things, but wehave the attention span of a
gnat.
We need so much things to keepour existence pure for ourselves
and stimulate our minds, butnature has been doing this for a
(21:30):
time.
On a memorial, you know thatnature shows us how, how we live
, how we, how we live side byside with each other, how a
squirrel is never going tocomplain that a rabbit's under
its tree and a frog's nevergoing to bother about a, a bee
(21:50):
that's pollinating it.
But we have problems withsomething coming into our
territories and we destroy whatwe don't understand.
And we have to startunderstanding very quickly,
because what we have left I theyhave to be protected, just has
to be.
It's their earth too yeah, thatjust.
Louis VI (22:13):
There's a fascination that could be triggered and I
think sound is such a quick wayto like, bypass all the
information and all the otherusual roadblocks and get
straight to the, to the core ofit, which is the feeling of
being in nature.
Like you could put on all thevr goggles as well, like and
immerse yourself in a naturalspace, but without the actual
(22:36):
sound and the smell and theactual feeling of it.
It's just, it's not the same umsanitized.
Yeah, yeah sure where, where Igot a question who made me think
where have you recorded thatyou found has stayed?
Is there any way you'verecorded that stayed like
sounding very natural.
Martyn Stewart (22:59):
Wow, yeah, wow, maybe places like the Arctic
National Wildlife Refuge,because the population up there
still is minimal.
I mean, there are nativevillages like which have a small
population, but you can't put aroad through the Arctic
(23:23):
National Wildlife Refuge andthere's millions of acres of
wilderness.
But I've been up there fivetimes, on the coastal plain, on
the brook side of the mountainin Sunset Pass, along the
(23:43):
Congucut River, and oneparticular time when they
dropped me out on a bush planeand had all my recording gear
and food and I was amongst thetundra and bears and musk, oxen
and arctic fox and a millionspecies of birds, it seemed.
(24:05):
But the closest, I think, towilderness has to be up in
Alaska.
Louis VI (24:15):
Wow, okay.
Closest, I think, to wildernessis has to be up in alaska.
Wow, okay.
And what does your date like?
What is what is like arecording session look like for
you?
Is it?
Are you going off for for weekslike this on your own and just
hitting record?
Martyn Stewart (24:29):
I talk a lot to myself, I do a lot of talking.
I I set out a protocol that Ithink if I can do the dawns and
then middays and then eveningchoruses, they're kind of go
hand in hand and you can compareagainst each other like that.
(24:49):
And I set my protocol the same.
I configure every singlemicrophone the same.
I configure the recordingequipment the same, because you
can't adjust levels and saythat's going to be science later
on.
You've got to have somethingthat's consistent.
So I will record for an hour inthe morning and an hour in
(25:12):
midday, and then evening I'll doan hour.
Or, you know, just sit there onmy seat for a couple of three
hours with headphones on,writing down what I hear, and
I'm not expecting anythingdifferent, it's just soundscape
and it's the greatest form ofmeditation you could ever.
(25:35):
You know if, if you're sittingthere and you're just listening
to, there's no such thing asquiet, but it's that tranquil
space that you're allowed towalk into.
And um, that's when I used tohave the problems.
If you hear the plane coming in, god, I wouldn't turn that off
(25:57):
until the plane went.
I kept it going becauseobviously it's.
It's science, scientific data.
There's flight paths going on.
Is that flight path beingpresent over the last five years
?
Is it this that so manyquestions and they also sound is
also used for impact statementsas well.
(26:18):
You know environmental impactstatements yeah but the protocol
has to be the same way and andI've recorded that way since I
was 19, I've kept that kind.
The levels are always.
If it's quiet, the levels arestill the same.
I make sure I put a an audibletone at the beginning of it so
(26:41):
that if I did change the gain ona recording I could reference
the 30 db tone, go back to thatto have it back to its present
state wow so I'm prettydisciplined when it goes out.
When I'm doing species specificstuff, I'm walking around with a
parabola dish and a good mateof mine in sweden, who built
(27:04):
these uh to linger dishes, mademy life a lot better than
walking around with a squirrelbaffler with a metal dish and
every insect is.
It was like a dinner bell goingoff, bing, you know, and then
you're walking through woods andforests and you're getting
bangs and things and stuff on onthe dish.
So he created this, this uhpolythene dish which you could
(27:29):
fold up and stick it in theplane and just fly off, unroll
it and then record stuff.
Those are cool times and if youask me what's my favorite
recording, I always state thelast one I did, because it's
just impossible to say which wasyour best one.
It's like saying if you go to adesert island, what's your five
(27:53):
albums you're going to takewith you and you think just five
.
Come on, you can't do it.
Louis VI (27:59):
It's interesting to know what to do.
I'm going to have a play.
I was quite interested to knowabout the Forest Palm Oil Fires
MP3 that you sent.
Palm oil fires MP3 that yousent.
Is that the same place, movingfrom what sounds like very
(28:24):
nature, pristine habitat, tologging to then fire, or was it
the soundscape you created?
It sounded amazing.
Martyn Stewart (28:34):
I created that soundscape based on actual audio
.
So the first time I went toKantanaman Canyon in Borneo,
you've got this fantastic riverthat just glides through the
forest and then in the morningyou hear the gibbons and the
(28:57):
animals chorusing and then thatdefinite chainsaw sound, which
some of the saddest sounds youcan ever hear.
Louis VI (29:08):
It's just the of of their beautiful home I was
wondering how there's like therewas a few minds when.
When ginny, there's a fewthoughts in my mind when ginny
originally asked me and I waslike how do I do this orange
guys thing?
Because obviously, from thename orange guys, I'm talking
(29:28):
about forest fires, both onesthat have happened naturally but
too much due to climate change,and ones that have been set off
purposely, and ones that havebeen happened to, like clear
forest, like even in amazon orborneo, and like how to best
tell that story?
Like is it that we like?
(29:49):
I really like this soundscape?
This could be that soundscapecould move throughout the length
of the track where it starts,uh, pristine, and it ends by
burning, um, it could also belike start where, yeah, it's at
the beginning, sounds rich andit's got all these different, um
, animals that you've sent thatall live in in various different
(30:12):
forest habitats, whether that'stogether or put into, sectioned
off into different ecosystemsor parts of the world, and then
we move into more.
Just, silence could be aninteresting way to do it as well
I think that would be such apowerful message.
Martyn Stewart (30:31):
I message.
With that I mean your words.
Behind all that stuff, you'retelling the story and, yeah, you
, you could talk about borneo.
You could talk about therainforest amazonia.
You could talk about howcolumbia is being taken apart.
You could talk about most partsof africa.
(30:53):
You could talk about the borealforest.
The boreal forests are the mostimportant forests above the
amazonian rainforest and that'sbeen deforested something like
80 percent.
They've lost 80% of the borealforest around Northern
hemisphere.
(31:13):
I think that I think thatthat's a powerful message.
It's almost like what was that?
You'd be 40 track.
They did, and the title was, soyou know, dramatic the earth
lies screaming, dies screaming,was that it?
And she's, she's doing that allthe time, you know yeah it's
(31:36):
those silent screams.
So when you, when you'retalking about logging and
burning forests and taking treesaway and then left with that
silence, those are silentscreams yeah, but I think if,
how do we get this into into asong?
Louis VI (31:57):
because it's I've got, uh, another friend of mine's
gonna feature on it.
He's a big artist and I'm gonnalike his verse will be the new
verse added on the end and he'ssuper smart as well.
Mick jenkins, who's a massiverapper in the us, already
smashed it with his verse.
Um, and I, you know, I'm notalmost like, do I could use some
(32:21):
parts of it literally within,maybe as a percussive thing or
in the melody, experiment withthat, but it could be quite
amazing to have it, as you know,you're describing as this
orchestra, with parts literallybeing chopped out and then all
burnt out even, could be a goodway of doing it.
(32:44):
There's something, especiallyas the tracks, called orange
skies and yeah, there's theweirdly beautiful but horrific
sign of orange skies and what itactually means.
Um, and all the fires around theworld.
I really like the idea with theborneo or the boreal and it
(33:07):
changing from sounding, yeah,healthy to cut down and coming
less and less and maybe endingwith the fire or the sound of it
, and then even the sound of itburnt and how quiet it is could
be really powerful for thatspecific track and I mean it's
(33:29):
asking a lot.
I think any Borneo or theborough forest would be
incredible, but it could be aninteresting one to link it.
If you I don't know if you hadanything of like.
Um, I don't know if there'sanything in the madagascan
forest, I know it's happening alot there as well yes, I've
recorded in madagascar reallyyes.
(33:52):
So I think that, if anything youway, we could create that
soundscape for it being um,sounding pristine to them,
dipping, maybe being burnt outon fire, to then silent what
kind of duration are you lookingat?
Martyn Stewart (34:09):
Would you rather have a stem of fire, a stem of
beauty?
You know everything going off,cacophony of sounds, a stem with
logging, a stem of silence?
Or do you want me to mix thatto you?
Louis VI (34:34):
Maybe that's the best way, but it could be quite
interesting.
It could be quite interestinghearing your take on the mix
I'll do.
Martyn Stewart (34:40):
I'll do a mix then.
Louis VI (34:43):
Yeah, I'll do a mix of three different places and see
what you think yeah, I thinkthat'd be really cool and I
think and it might be, I don'tknow it might be more fun.
It's kind of a bit morecreative on your side as well I
would love to do that.
Martyn Stewart (34:59):
I love that title too orange guys yeah, just
say so much I'll change.
Louis VI (35:08):
I'm going to change the productions a little bit, um
, maybe even a lot, depending onon the soundscape.
I mean, it would be amazing.
I want to give as much room tothe nature as I can, whilst
keeping it feeling like a song,which is going to be an
interesting experiment.
I think, um, I'm definitelybiased towards the nature sounds
(35:29):
.
Martyn Stewart (35:31):
That's cool, that's absolutely cool.
Louis VI (35:36):
Well, I'll work on that.
That'd be ideal, god, I can'twait to hear it.
But this Borneo one what I'mgoing to do, if it's all right
with you, I'm going to drop thatinto the current track and have
a play to see how that movementsounds.
Of course, that um and then andthen, yeah, send me whatever
(35:58):
you come up with.
Martyn Stewart (36:01):
Louis, you're an amazing bloke.
Louis VI (36:04):
So are you man?
Bloody hell, it's an absolutehonour to meet you, man.
I mean, I knew we were going toget on from uh, from listening
to your recordings and stuff.
You're a bit of a bloody legend, man legend my arse.
Martyn Stewart (36:18):
God bless you.
Louis VI (36:21):
I think you are.
I think nature would be pretty.
Mother nature would be pretty,certainly calling you a legend
for how much you've recorded hersounds, man well, if she calls
me that, I'll accept it yeahyou've just experienced another
(36:42):
journey on the listening planetpodcast.
Martyn Stewart (36:46):
Dive deeper into the world of natural sounds by
connecting with us online.
Visit our website or follow uson social media.
Let the symphony of naturesurround you wherever you go.
Happy listening.
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