Cold can be quiet, still and bleak. But if we stop to really listen, we might hear cracking ice, howling wind, animal noises and sleet and hail falling on land and buildings. There is much we can learn from the natural world, from animals and water, in how to embrace the chill at this time of the Winter Solstice.
In this week's show, "Wintering in the Wild," our teachers are reindeer, walruses, hummingbirds and frogs, alongside the icy open waters of Antarctica.
If you're craving more sounds of the outside in winter, check out the work of one of our guests, music composer and sound designer Douglas Quin. Quin created the sound for a film by Warner Herzog, "Encounters at the End of the World." He's also designed sounds for the invented creatures of the game Spore, as well as for the films "Jurassic Park III" and "One Mind: A Zen Pilgrimage," about a Zen community in China. And he was the Antarctica field engineer for the movie "Where'd You Go, Bernadette." Quin's numerous albums include "Fathom," from the underwater polar regions and "Forests: A Book of Hours."
And if you want to take your listening in the wild even further, you could create a phenology journal, a book where you take note of the changes of the seasons. You'd choose one place and go back to it every day at the same time, hearing and seeing how it's changed. Or you could go on a walk or choose new places. Whether you journal or not, I hope you're inspired by some of the winter sound we've gathered for you. Let me know what seasonal sounds you're hearing these days at listen@ttbook.org.
–Shannon