The Power of Tranquility in a Very Noisy World by Bernie Krause

Author:Bernie Krause [KRAUSE, BERNIE]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Published: 2021-09-28T00:00:00+00:00

In our relatively short time as members of the Anthropophonocene, we’ve largely sheltered within an expanding bubble of our own technological din, drawn to virulent destructive signals and dismissing those that may well be restorative. Especially problematic is exposure to loud sound signatures present since the advent of the Industrial Revolution, a fairly recent period when humans began to push urban density to extremes and coincidentally cranked the levels of sound to brandish our newfound sense of power. Now, however, we’re seeing another effect of those human concentrations with the spread of the COVID-19 virus. In contrast, and with many of us off the streets, our urban centers suddenly became very quiet for a time. Is there something to be gained from those moments?

The examples I’ve just described—two from ancient cultures and the other from a contemporary one—provide a timeless summons into the recesses of the human psyche. No matter when or where we live, this reflection obliges a form of nurture obtainable only through direct links to and involvement in the operational embrace of the natural world. Take your pick. Either approach works. The natural world has many open portals.

For those in urban centers hearing for the first time the structure of natural sound with everything so quiet, imagine how you’d feel taking a break now and then and ambling off into a forest that was set aside for its relatively tranquil properties at all hours of the day, all seasons of the year.

Folks worldwide have begun to hear what’s therapeutically possible within these soundscapes especially when the competition with high noise levels humans generate is diminished. For example, a park in Taipei is noted for being one of the most tranquil urban parks in the world. Located in Taiwan, an island of 22 million people, it is one of the world’s most densely populated places. Yangmingshan National Park is located just north of the capital, Taipei, and is home to rare aquatic plants, expressive frogs, and the endemic Formosan blue magpies, among many other vocal organisms. This subtropical biome consists of more than forty square miles of mountainous terrain, as well as forests interspersed with hiking trails, and even features pristine hot springs. It’s a place where nearby urban dwellers can go to bathe in soundscapes of elegant biophonies and where the human noise rarely exceeds a sound pressure level of 45dB, equivalent to background noise in a very quiet bedroom.5

The power of these natural voices is still amazing, to me, one who’s been studying the effects for years. Young children, who have nothing acoustically in their early memory banks to compare, are remarkably shaped by the initial impact of these gentle sounds. That’s because biophonies are possibly embedded in our DNA and the resonances may elicit vague memories of our evolutionary past. The exchanges between wild animals and children enliven their encounters with the living world with a sense of wonder and delight.

In order to maintain that sense of miraculous presence—the one I alluded to in the

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