Sound Escapes: Nature’s untouched soundtrack

Twenty Thousand Hertz

Dallas Taylor

Music, Design, Arts, Music Commentary

4.8 • 4.1K Ratings

🗓️ 6 May 2019

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Over his long career, Gordon Hempton has mastered the art of truly listening. He’s known as the Sound Tracker. Some people call him an acoustic ecologist. His recordings and books have made him an international expert on the beauty and importance of undisturbed, natural soundscapes — and the ways human beings have changed them. Now, Gordon Hempton is losing his hearing. But with that loss has come an intense urgency to share his life’s work — and his passion — with as many people as are willing to listen. Twenty Thousand Hertz is produced out of the studios of Defacto Sound, and hosted by Dallas Taylor. Follow Dallas on Instagram, TikTok and LinkedIn. Watch our video shorts on YouTube, and join the discussion on Reddit and Facebook. Become a monthly contributor at 20k.org/donate. If you know what this week's mystery sound is, tell us at mystery.20k.org. Check out the whole Sound Escapes series at BirdNote.org/SoundEscapes, or wherever you get your podcasts. Check out Gordon’s work and buy recordings on his website soundtracker.com. Episode transcript, music, and credits can be found here: https://www.20k.org/episodes/soundescapes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to 20,000 Hertz.
0:06.2	I'm Dallas Taylor.
0:12.5	This will come as no surprise, but I am really into sound.
0:16.8	And I don't just host a podcast about it.
0:18.9	I'm also a sound designer.
0:20.6	I started a company called
0:21.7	DeFacto Sound, and our team has been collecting and crafting a huge library of sounds for over 10
0:27.4	years. And when it comes to capturing the sounds of the natural world, there's an undisputed king.
0:33.5	Gordon Hempton has made many of the best nature recordings of all time.
0:40.5	Every reputable sound designer in the world knows his name,
0:44.9	and you've heard his recordings and countless movies, television shows, and games.
0:48.4	But Gordon isn't just an amazing sound recordist.
0:50.7	He's also an exceptional listener,
0:56.3	and we can all learn a lot from the way he hears the world. Today we're featuring a story by the podcast Sound Escapes. Host Ashley Ahern spoke with Gordon. Here's Ashley.
1:06.4	What if you had dedicated your life to recording the sounds of the natural world, from the
1:12.1	rainforest of Hawaii to the vast, dry prairies of North America?
1:18.1	But then, one day, you woke up to silence.
1:23.9	I have pretty substantial hearing loss that I have good days and bad days.
1:31.4	And it was about two years ago that I couldn't understand the spoken word on a telephone or
1:37.9	anything like that.
1:48.9	Over his long career, Gordon Hempton has mastered the art of truly listening. He's known as the sound tracker.
1:51.3	Some people call him an acoustic ecologist.
	...

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