Can You Hear Earth Singing? Meet Musicians Using Sound to Protect the Planet

Update: 2025-04-12

Description

What does a melting glacier sound like? Can a rainforest sing? And what happens when the last bird of its species hears a recording and tries to reply?

In this special live edition of the Drowned in Sound Podcast, recorded at Tallinn Music Week, host Sean Adams moderates a powerful conversation on music, ecology, and collective action. Joined by artists and innovators from the EarthSonic project, the panel explores how field recordings, plant biofeedback, and immersive sound can shift our understanding of the planet — and why that emotional shift matters.

From Brazil’s disappearing biodiversity to sound fossils in the Swiss Alps, this episode weaves together music, activism, and indigenous wisdom in an urgent yet hopeful conversation about art’s role in averting climate collapse.

Plus Ruth from In Place of War reveals their new project with Bicep in Greenland that launches in summer 2025.

Featured Guests & Projects:

Episode Highlights & Timestamps:

03:00 – Ruth Daniel on the origins of In Place of War and EarthSonic
06:00 – Ludwig Berger: Listening to melting glaciers through hydrophones
11:00 – Martyn Ware (Heaven 17/The Human League) on sonifying endangered species and synthetic forests
17:00 – Natural Symphony: Collaborating with plants and reforesting the Amazon
27:00 – The power of sound to bridge disconnection and inspire action
33:00 – Building cultural change through art and emotional resonance
39:00 – Sound healing, deep listening, and making the unseen audible
45:00 – What capitalism doesn’t want us to feel — and why art matters
52:00 – Indigenous wisdom, urban detachment, and finding your own tree
58:00 – Hopeful projects, collective agency, and calling in the music industry