As we often use eyes to touch nature, most of us “lose” the ability to listen to the world.

Peter writes music. He likes sounds and uses natural sounds as part of his music. He often went out to the wild with his microphone and recorded interesting sounds to put in movies or to use in his own songs. Instead of trying to capture just the sound of one animal or bird, he recorded the sound of everything all together—the animals, the trees, the wind and the earth. He called these recordings “soundscapes”—the sound of a certain place. Every soundscape Peter recorded had a lot of information.

Back in his workshop, Peter used a computer to make a picture of all the sounds going on in a place. Each animal, bird and insect had its own place on the picture—its own notes in the music. The busier the picture, the richer the life in that place. “While a picture may be worth 1,000 words, a soundscape is worth 1,000 pictures,” Peter said. “Our ears tell us the sound of every leaf and animal and speak to the natural sources (来源) of our lives, which may hold the secrets of love for all things, especially our own humanity.”

But not everything is satisfying. When Peter began recording over forty years ago, he could record for ten hours and get one hour of usable material good enough for a movie. Now, because of human activities, it can take up to 1,000 hours or more to get the same thing. Some of the places he has recorded over the years have slowly fallen silent. His sound pictures show that although nature might look the same to humans, it has lost part of its orchestra (管弦乐队).

So next time you are in the forests, try another way to look—shut your eyes, and listen.