While the sound design of Earthsounds illustrates the sonic richness in the natural world in a very descriptive way, the music had to provide an emotional context and foundation to support the sonic landscape.

We decided early on that the score should be derived and constructed from acoustic and organic sound sources to mirror and complement the aesthetic and roots of each natural sound.

Initial experiments involved blurring the lines between sound design and music, but after the first episode we realised that the score had to actually do the opposite; have a distinction between the two to avoid any confusion for the audience so they could focus on the narrative drive.
I did use sounds that at times mimicked or are inspired by the natural sounds.
Much of the sound palette was built up from recording musical foley sessions and then manipulating and treating the sounds to create musical instruments out of them; I recorded vocals enhanced with distortion for the Lion arriving; the sounds of eggshells cracking were amplified x20 to create ominous percussion.

The music also had to complement the tone of the editing. For example the quirky character of the Ostriches were represented by a solo violin and mandolins. The rhythm of jeopardy and suspense for the Ostriches running away was made out of cracking and hitting egg shells and recording extended string techniques.

The overall tone of the music had to be warm and inviting with a sense of empathy and curiosity without falling into cliche. Even the action and moments of jeopardy are treated in a sensitive way so as not to ‘scare’ the audience.

Technically, we were extremely careful to be sensitive to the natural sounds, so I had to ensure that the music didn’t conflict in terms of frequency range, carefully choosing sounds and mixing the cues to allow for the natural sounds to dominate.

Restraint can be challenging when composing. It’s tempting and easy to overwrite and score a scene, and this score was a huge challenge. Every cue had to be written bespoke to picture with nuance and subtlety.

The only times we ‘allowed’ ourselves to use electronics and synths were during the ‘behind the sounds’ section of each episode which had scenes of human intervention.
The music prepares the listener for what they are about to hear. It gives each sound an emotional context and story. So it sets a framework in terms of location, pace, tone.

The end result is film with a rich soundtrack that truly shows the extraordinary role that sound plays in our natural world.

"a hypnotic exploration of sound in nature that stands out as Apple TV+’s coolest nature series to date"

- Loud and Clear