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Photography by Archie Brooksbank/ @bladesman_
Co-Founders, Martyn Stewart + Amanda Hill
SOUND is how the natural world is able to speak to us. It’s a language, however, that many of us have long since forgotten and yet its call has never been more urgent.
I’ve dedicated my life to wanting to change that, to giving a voice to the seemingly voiceless and awaken a connection I believe lives deep inside all of us.
Never before have we faced such an urgent need to connect hearts with minds and knowledge with action in order to inspire people to value and connect with the natural world and to critically safeguard its future.
‘The David Attenborough of Sound” - National Geographic
Martyn Stewart - Sound Recordist since the age of 11 - Founder of The Listening Planet + BIOPHONIICA
"Our world is anything but silent"
Photography by Archie Brooksbank/ @bladesman_
THE BEGINNINGS
Martyn Stewart has spent his lifetime on a mission: to record the sounds of our planet. The dawn chorus, the dusk symphony, the rush of the tides, the whispers in the grass – the chirps, cheeps, buzzes, songs, calls, clicks that make up nature’s glorious cacophony.
"And the end-purpose of that mission: to save the world. No more, no less."
As the British born, Florida-based naturalist points out, since he began his epic, repeat circumnavigations of the globe, 75 per cent of the landscapes and soundscapes that he’s recorded have vanished, been silenced or suffered significant degradation.
For over 50 years, Martyn has travelled the world, microphone and recorder in hand (and insect repellent nearby). It’s a solitary, driven passion that he dates to his childhood “fascination” with the fauna and flora around him in the suburban Midlands. It’s his dedication, however, that ultimately resulted in him being renowned as the David Attenborough of sound.
In 2021, Amanda learned that Martyn had been diagnosed with terminal cancer. This started a far deeper partnership between the two of them and one that ultimately aims to ensure Martyn’s legacy continues far beyond his lifetime.
By the end of 2021, they had co-created The Listening Planet - a charity dedicated to promoting a wider appreciation of Planet Earth's beauty, diversity and fragility and to help inspire and educate the next generation of recordists and advocates for the natural world - all through the medium of sound. The Listening Planet charity today houses the largest personal library of nature sounds in the world.
Alongside that, Biophonica was also born.
Amanda has spent her career as a leading figure and change agent in the media industry. She was the first global CMO for BBC Studios and built her initial legacy by founding BBC Earth and spearheading its growth into a global media brand. She led the global strategy for the BBC and its brand portfolio – including Planet Earth and Blue Planet. She was also appointed as the first global CMO for A+E Networks, served on the board of the Royal Academy of music and the London Philharmonic orchestra and still serves as an advisor on the latter.
Together, they are on a mission to bring together collaborators, artists, creators, musicans and storytellers form all over the world to work directly with the most remarkable artists on the planet – nature itself.
