Listen to the world

September 22, 2018 6:22 PM

An aural experience in which the NY Times explores the soundscape of the earth and its inhabitants.
posted by standardasparagus (8 comments total)

This is so good. I sometimes wish that when people were having disputes, when ultimately trivial things were being argued over, or when competing sides were continuing fights that are years or decades old, they could be taken to these places, shown the incredible biodiversity of life on Earth, and just have their minds experience something that just changes them.
posted by cashman at 7:10 PM on September 22, 2018

This is so stunning. The rat laughs! The lava glass (I never knew)! I want to buy a recording device to make my own.
posted by waninggibbon at 8:25 PM on September 22, 2018 [1 favorite]

I'm bookmarking the hell out of this. As someone who is totally blind, I can't begin to express how happy I am to see a mainstream publication putting so much emphasis on sound. I've often wished more people were aware of just how much delight there is in even every-day sonic landscapes. It's one of my true pleasures.
posted by Alensin at 9:10 PM on September 22, 2018 [12 favorites]

I wish I could hear all of this without the human voices and with less editing
posted by idiopath at 9:12 PM on September 22, 2018

So the laser sounds used in the original Star Wars came from field recordings of northern Italy?

Huh.
posted by nightrecordings at 10:16 PM on September 22, 2018

My dad was listening to this in the living room and caused me to have kind of a hecking concern when I heard the lemurs. Sudden lemurs are... alarming. This is great though. Once you know what you’re listening to of course.
posted by Homo neanderthalensis at 10:56 PM on September 22, 2018

We were listening to and enjoying this this morning and the lemur sounds freaked out my cat, but he was indifferent to the rest of the sounds, including the rats (maybe because they changed the frequency?)
posted by gudrun at 8:59 AM on September 23, 2018

Agreed, too many human voices and editing, need more natural noises.
posted by BlueHorse at 1:53 PM on September 23, 2018 [1 favorite]