Cosmo Sheldrake is a UK-based multi-instrumentalist, producer, composer, live improviser and field recordist
Cosmo Sheldrake is a UK-based multi-instrumentalist, producer, composer, live improviser and field recordist
What would change if forests, waterways and wildlife were recognised as more than just resources? The idea has been debated ever since Prof Christopher Stone posited in a 1972 issue of the Southern California Law Review that trees should have legal rights. The concept is now gathering pace, with advocates calling for the more-than-human world to be granted legal protection, a voice in decision-making and even recognition for its creativity. Is this slow revolution finally coming of age?
In this mini series, we highlight five initiatives that are igniting action across the globe. First up, we tune in to the nature-inspired music of Cosmo Sheldrake
A skylark and a cow. Hardly your typical rave innovators, but to musician Cosmo Sheldrake’s ears, their sounds conjured up images of dancefloor mayhem.
“The skylark was singing, and it just sounded like liquid drum and bass: terrifyingly fast drum and bass,” says Sheldrake, recalling the moment 13 years ago when his afternoon nap was disturbed by birdsong. “There was a cow doing a deep ‘moo’, and everything came together in my mind of this wild rave.”
Since then, Sheldrake has established a reputation for using the sounds of nature in his work. Chopping and tweaking samples captured on a field recorder, he gives centre stage to the creative power of wild spaces and the more-than-human world.
His Wake Up Calls album was composed entirely of recordings of endangered British birds such as the bittern, cuckoo and nightingale, while his ocean homage – Wild Wet World – features spluttering coral reefs and the mournful lament of blue whales.
Acknowledging nature as a collaborator in his work, rather than simply exploiting its repository of sound, Sheldrake already donates half of his royalties to conservation, but one recent collaboration has taken this nature rights ethos one step further.
After composing a song with collaborators including the writer Robert Macfarlane, using sounds captured high in Ecuador’s Los Cedros cloud forest, Sheldrake is at the heart of a legal bid to have the ecosystem legally recognised as the work’s co-creator.
He was visiting Los Cedros, which is itself protected by a landmark rights of nature ruling recognising the forest as a legal entity, as part of Macfarlane’s new book, Is A River Alive?
Huddled around a campfire with César Rodríguez-Garavito, founder of the More Than Human Life (MOTH) project, and field mycologist Giuliana Furci, Sheldrake fired up an app on his phone and began toying with samples of howler monkeys, toucan barbets and bats. Macfarlane, meanwhile, chipped in with lines of verse.
To really listen to a healthy ecosystem is quite something. It’s a massive, rich sonic tapestry
“It all just came together high up in this cloud forest, with some field recordings, Rob’s words and some melodies that popped up out of nowhere.” Sheldrake recalls.
Song of the Cedars was the result, and MOTH has petitioned Ecuador’s copyright office to recognise Los Cedros’ moral authorship. If granted, it would be a world first, with a share of streaming income diverted to efforts safeguarding the forest’s future.
“To really listen to a healthy ecosystem is quite something,” says Sheldrake. “It’s a massive, rich sonic tapestry. Hopefully Song of the Cedars can set a legal precedent, and people will begin to take seriously the notion of more-than-human creativity.”
Visit cosmosheldrake.com to find out more
Main image: Jack Thompson-Roylance
Website: Atomic Smash
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