Where Earth Sings: An Eco-Music Playlist

playlistEnvironmental Soundeco music
Written By M.H. H.

In the quiet spaces, music is mostly about paying attention.

This playlist was born from that idea, a curated journey through acoustic ecology, living acoustic soundscapes, and the intimate act of listening to Earth itself.
I’m proud to share Where Earth Sings, a collection of works by artists whose practices reflect the rhythms of ecology, conservation, and connection with the living world.
These are natural paths formed through sound, and led through the world by listening.

Before you press play, pause.

Let the noise fall away.

Breathe.

Enter these soundscapes as living environments, singing for those with ears to hear.

The Playlist

Support the artists, each title links to the release.

Echoes of the Earth: The Soundscape Pioneers

Two iconic works by John Luther Adams & Seattle Symphony bookend this playlist. Become Desert opens our journey with sweeping orchestral textures that evoke vast arid landscapes. Adams, a Pulitzer Prize-winning composer, has dedicated his career to translating environmental experiences into sound. His work creates immersive spaces where listeners can contemplate our relationship with the Earth. Become Desert is the companion piece, which appears as the closing track of this playlist.

Hildegard Westerkamp was a pioneer in the field of acoustic ecology in the 1970s, and a founding member of the World Soundscape Project, still active today. Westerkamp's work blends field recordings with narration and subtle processing, inviting listeners to truly hear environments often ignored in our visually-dominated culture. As the title suggests, this piece celebrates the varied sounds of precipitation in the Pacific Northwest, transforming what many consider background noise into a rich tapestry of texture and rhythm.

Voices of the Living World: Artists Listening Today

Dr. Leah Barclay is an Australian artist, composer and researcher specializing in electroacoustic music, and acoustic ecology. Barclay’s Subterranean Sketch explores hidden aquatic environments through intimate hydrophone recordings, presenting the otherwise inaccessible soundscapes of these underwater ecosystems. Dr. Barclay's work extends beyond art into fields of conservation, using sound to raise awareness about threatened river systems worldwide.

Douglas Quin is a composer, sound artist, educator, and renowned wildlife recordist, with over 30 years experience collecting sound recordings from remote locations around the world. Quin’s Caiman Dawn captures the rich biodiversity of wetland environments, showcasing the textures of a thriving ecosystem, and the acoustic biodiversity that faces extinction from human encroachment and climate change.

Sounds of Rewilding brings a powerful conservation message with Dusk, a piece documenting the sonic transformations occurring in areas being returned to nature. A Day in the life of the Knepp Estate captures soundscapes from dawn to dusk in East Sussex, presenting the gradual rebirth of a biodiverse ecosystem, born from what was once a landscaped wasteland. The recordings were made by Alice Eldridge of the University of Sussex, who said:

“I have come to believe that nature sounds are not only ‘calming’, but offer a powerful, visceral means to remind us that we are a part of the wider tapestry of life.”


Chris Watson, of electronic group Cabaret Voltaire, has become one of the world's premier wildlife sound recordists. His track The Lapaich demonstrates his remarkable ability to capture and compose with natural sounds, creating pieces that feel both documentary and deeply artistic. Located toward the end of our journey, this track showcases the pristine Scottish wilderness through Watson's meticulous recording techniques.

Where Instruments and Earth Speak as One

Annea Lockwood, represented by two tracks in this playlist, has dedicated decades to documenting natural systems through sound. Her floating world invites deep listening to water environments, while the extended Side II from 7704A - Tiger Balm demonstrates her pioneering work in electronic composition. Lockwood approaches environmental recording as both documentary and transformative practice, using the form to discover how to transcend through one’s self.

Jana Winderen's Spring Bloom in the Marginal Ice Zone reveals the thriving sonic landscapes of underwater ecosystems of the Arctic, bringing attention to these spaces most threatened by climate change. Her work uses sensitive hydrophones to capture sounds otherwise inaudible to the human ear, using technology to expand our understanding of the changes in these secluded natural environments.

New Currents in the Eco-Acoustic Field

Based in Portland, Oregon, Patricia Wolf has emerged as a leading contemporary in eco-music, blending natural cycles with synthesis and electronic process. Wolf’s work here reflects the pulse of fleeting migrations, a moment of collective movement.

Cheryl E. Leonard is a San Francisco-based composer, using instruments built from natural materials of a specific place. Lullaby for E Seals becomes a prayer of interspecies tenderness, a cradle of fragile coexistence.

Irish artist Natalia Beylis taps into underground ecologies with The Roots of the Mountain Ash Embrace the Stone. The piece breathes like a living organism, a softly spoken story of soil and stone.

ludwig berger & vadret da morteratsch’s work documents the voice of melting glaciers. Part of an original soundtrack for the film "Crying Glacier" directed by Lutz Stautner, on a different scale is a song for impending climate collapse.

Grand River closes this section, with electronic minimalism shaped by nature’s irregular rhythms. Originally created in 2022 as an installation piece, Tuning the Wind from Berlin based artist Aimée Portioli offers air as living sculpture, a breath in service of listening.

Foundations of Deep Listening

R. Murray Schafer’s The Falcon’s Trumpet soars. Schafer actually coined the term soundscape and reframed listening as an ecological responsibility. His legacy moves through every artist featured here.

As an artist working with field recordings and creating ecological music, these works are important teachers and companions. It's endlessly fascinating to discover new unbelievable sounds, sourced from the Earth and the spaces around us. The Earth is our caretaker, and our collaborator — a true inspiration.

This playlist represents just a starting point for exploring the rich intersection of music, sound, and environmental connection. Each artist opens a door to an ephemeral moment, something irreplaceable.

Experience the full "Where Earth Sings" playlist on BuyMusic Club here.

Please support these artists and labels, we all help keep the music alive.

Thanks for listening,

-Matthew Hiram 🙏🌿✨

M.H. H.
Previous

Garden Music | A Living Portrait of the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden
Next

Blossom Songs: Seed Variations Remix EP | Flowers You Can Listen To