Go with the flow

This project consists of a digitally produced musical intervention in the soundscape of Gorbea Natural Park, using a wireless loudspeaker placed on the left bank of the River Undabe at 43° 0′ 20.74″ N, 2° 38′ 46.908″ W. The music was composed specifically for that location in response to sonic and sensory data gathered there beforehand.

This natural area covers approximately 20,000 hectares of protected land and contains significant beech, oak, willow and ash woodland, together with abundant wildlife — falcons, deer, martens and many other species — giving it a distinctive natural richness. The specific location chosen for the sound intervention is the beech and pine woodland between Ubide and Otzarreta, beside the Rivers Undabe and Zubizabala. The intention is to offer the forest a human-made digital musical composition through a wireless loudspeaker, allowing it to merge with the environment without creating a disruptive soundscape for those who inhabit it. The aim is to achieve a symbiosis between nature and technology in which the natural world is not harmed by human sound, but the harmony of the music enriches the forest soundscape.

The intervention was recorded on video from the ground, from the air using a GoPro camera attached to the extendable base of a microphone stand, and from underwater using a phone enclosed in a waterproof Seawag case.

This project is a tribute to nature and to the undistorted sounds of woodland. In the light of the environmental damage caused by human activity, and as an invitation to reflect on the noise produced by electronic devices in any environment and the disruption this can cause to other forms of life, the work creates a soundscape born from the symbiosis of electronic music and natural sound.

The project begins with two questions: are human beings capable of improving a natural environment? And, if not, can we at least learn not to damage it?

In response, I made several visits to the site in order to absorb its sensory stimuli and, through that perception, compose a piece of music that would fit the natural soundscape of the chosen location.

The result can be seen and heard in the work, which combines images and natural sounds from the setting of the intervention — a forest clearing through which the River Undabe runs, close to the Otzarreta beech wood, at 43° 1′ 38.4″ N, 2° 43′ 14.742″ W in Gorbea Natural Park — with sound from a wireless loudspeaker positioned near the river. Using Bluetooth technology, the loudspeaker plays music transmitted from a phone.

The melody introduced into the soundscape was composed without using editing software to alter the natural sound in order to make it fit the music harmonically. It was created using the same kinds of equipment that can generate noise pollution — an electronic piano, a computer and a loudspeaker — yet its sonic characteristics produce a harmonious symbiosis between nature and human beings, balancing natural and digital sound.

The images present the natural environment from several perspectives — land, air and underwater — suggesting the different approaches that both forest-dwellers and human visitors can make to this soundscape.

These approaches through earth, air and water, together with the electronic devices representing fire and the music alluding to ether, present in all that is created, refer to the five phases or five movements of transformation between natural phenomena and their interrelations in Pythagorean philosophy. In their harmonious form, the five elements nourish and contain one another; in their destructive form, they annihilate one another. This philosophical idea can therefore be extended to the importance of harmony between human beings and the natural environment, and indeed with every other form of life.

The project was carried out in spring, when the sound of Nature begins to rise in intensity with increased solar radiation, as a sensory metaphor for a new and more respectful relationship between human beings and their environment: one in which coexistence without domination can be valued and harmonious integration forms the backdrop to the process.