Natural sounds and identity

Music in the Palaeolithic era was pure nature – until Homo sapiens began carving flutes from bird bones around 40,000 years ago. Today, traffic, machinery and everyday life shape the soundscape. However, it is precisely the combination of natural and artificial sounds that has a special effect: it can help us relax, concentrate or foster a sense of identity. “Soundscapes make us more aware of what we perceive as worthy of protection. For many people, this effect is heightened when music and natural sounds are combined, for example a piano and raindrops,” says musicologist Joep Janssens. At the same time, his research shows that natural sounds have also been politically charged in the past – for example, in the romantic idealisation of the German forest, which later fostered nationalist ideologies.

Read the Unizeit article (2026)