Nature is something people are inherently fascinated by. We are enthralled by the beauty it offers and diligently study anything and everything about it to satisfy our curious minds. However, there’s another way we indulge this curiosity that isn’t typically considered and that is through music.
Music offers a clean canvas for musicians to display expression of themselves, whether it’s what they enjoy, their feelings, personality or their interests. Often through this way, music is often a method for people to express fascination with nature.
There are many artists who may often incorporate nature sounds into their own music such as Boards of Canada, an electronic music duo, Brian Eno who is mostly well known for ambient music, Sam Lee who is a conservationist folk singer and Terje Isungset, a Norwegian jazz percussionist.
Artists such as these often include audible elements of nature such as the calls of wildlife, the splashes of water, rustling of wind, leaves blowing and the song of birds. Nature music often incorporates a wide array of sound arrangements such as these to paint a vivid image of nature along with a wide arrangement of instruments to complement each other.
“Ravedeath, 1972” by Tim Hecker is a good example of nature music as it incorporates sounds of water and wind combined with various instruments and musical sounds that creates a cacophony of ambience and noise that creates this overall tone and feeling of oblivion yet a hopeful calmness. “And Their Refinement of the Decline,” by Sars of the Lid is another good example that utilizes various natural sounds as well as a few urban ones along with voices to create an overall album with a calm yet natural tone that works well.
