Happy Earth Day — New Song Out Today: 'All We Are'
A song for our shifting soundscapes, with 50% of royalties going back into frontline conservation efforts
Happy Earth Day 🌱
Today I’ve released a new song called ‘All We Are’, and I wanted to share a bit about the story behind it.
Last year, I made an audio documentary for BBC Radio 4 called Shifting Soundscapes. I’d met audio naturalist Martyn Stewart, who over his lifetime has amassed almost 100,000 recordings of natural sounds. He’d agreed to give me access to his incredible archive, The Listening Planet, with the aim of me revisiting some of these locations to see how they’ve changed.
One of these locations was Bromwich Wood (or locally known as Bluebell Wood), a small pocket of trees towards the south of Birmingham. Martyn grew up near there, and developed a love for birdsong on long summer days where he’d lie in the grass and look up to the treetops. He used to lug his brother’s reel-to-reel tape machine across the fields to the woods and record the dawn chorus. It’s where he fell in love with field recording.
He’d revisited the woods in his 20s, back in 1976, and documented the woods’ soundscape. The recording is vibrant, teeming with birdsong. Almost half a century later, last spring, I found myself in the very same woodland, the surrounding fields gone, now the sprawling suburbs of Birmingham.
My recording was still lively, with blue tits and robins - your classic British garden birds. But there’s a shift - a thinning of sound, the droning of the nearby road, the rumble of planes overhead. Martyn's beloved childhood woods had changed.
Martyn’s recording in spring 1976:
My recording in spring 2024:
When I shared the recording with Martyn, it brought tears to his eyes.
“I don’t think I’ve ever heard anything like that, no - back in the 70s, back in the 60s. Wow that’s a shock. And you can tell the density of the birds has gone, everything that dwelled in those woods. That habitat was just beautiful, it was pristine. You have to forgive me. I think because of the connection I had with that place with a kid... I’ve done lots of comparisons in my life of places I’ve been to with several years between each visit, but they don’t have that connection like this one. That place has my spirit as when I was a kid.”
I’d not prepared myself for what the experiment might mean to Martyn. The sound of planes and distant roads has been part of my everyday soundtrack for pretty much my whole life, and I have to travel far to experience a soundscape remotely similar to what Martyn experienced as a kid.
The world has changed a lot in the last 50 years, and I was experiencing secondhand “solastalgia” - a term for the grief we feel when our environment changes around us. It’s like nostalgia, but for a world we haven’t left - one that’s transformed while we’ve stayed put. ‘All We Are’ is inspired by that feeling, of mourning a soundscape I’ve never known. It’s inspired by Martyn’s story, as well as my own feelings about our shifting soundscapes.
I’m really proud that this track is part of the Sounds Right initiative, which launched last year by giving NATURE official artist status on streaming platforms. It means that natural sounds can now generate royalties - just like any other musician - with those funds going directly to support conservation efforts. Since its launch, more than 130 million streams have helped support frontline environmental projects around the world. 50% of royalties from my song will be added to this pot, so by listening to this track, you are contributing!
A shout out to the amazing team who helped me create this track:
Produced & mixed – Liam Evans
Piano – Tom Griffiths
Field recordings – Martyn Stewart (The Listening Planet) & me
Mastered – Katie Tavini
Artwork photography – Caitlin Isobel Warren
A few other things I’ve been working on…
Found Sounds — I’ve produced two new episodes recently! One features Claire Ratinon, food grower and writer, talking about the value of growing and the importance of supporting those who produce our food . The other is with Lucy May Schofield, an artist whose woodblock prints are deeply tied to place and the passage of time. I loved making both of these — you can find them wherever you get your podcasts or by following this link
Thank you to everyone who came to my gig and spatial sound installation at Kings Place — it meant the world to share that evening with you. I made two YouTube videos documenting the process, one focussing on field recording and the other on creating the installation
And there’s something exciting coming soon… I’m currently working on a new project with the RSPB, focussing on a very elusive bird. Watch this space 🦅
That’s all from me for now — thank you for reading, and for continuing to support my work!
Alice