Natura Sonora by El Búho

Natura Sonora is both an album of imagined journeys and a homage to the immensity, beauty and mystery of the natural world.

The album was created during the first Covid-19 lockdown from my 40sqm flat in a Parisian suburb, dreaming of the beauty of the outside world.

The concept was to use music as a tool to go on an imagined journey to some of the world’s most beautiful natural places - an escape from the same view from my window of a grey, urban environment during lockdown. I chose nine stunningly beautiful, strange and mysterious corners of the world I have always dreamt of visiting but never have. I immersed myself in these places, watching video, photographs and seeking out recordings of how they sound.

These recordings became the foundation for each track, from creaking ice to underwater mangroves, goats and birds to rain and rivers, each sound has its own story to tell. I would place the ‘found sound’ recording into Ableton, hook up my Digitone synth or some drum kits and start to explore and experiment alongside the sound. I also took a lot of inspiration from sound ecologists like Bernie Kraus’ work on the musicality of nature and how sound can be a measure of an ecosystem’s health.

Natura Sonora is an ode to the majesty of nature and its power to inspire, a reminder that despite our attempts to control it, we remain in awe of its power, its beauty and its mystery. It is also an ode to the imagination, to travelling without moving and how, despite the hardship, the pandemic also pushed our creative boundaries.

I couldn’t imagine a better artwork to accompany this album than this incredible piece by Tomás Sánchez, one of Cuba’s most important living artists. His stunningly detailed landscapes explore the beauty and loss of our natural world, depicting a utopic, untouched, dreamlike scene which no longer exists and often placing a lone figure meditating before a lush, wild, green backdrop.

His work presents a paradox of mourning for what we have destroyed alongside hope and a vision of what we are trying to save - a symbol of hope within chaos.

Latin American rhythms, digital bleeps, owl bass and found sounds.

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