We recently attended a lecture from Future Network in the Netherlands with Maaike Bruggeman and Marjolein Kellerhuis of the GenietmeeHub. One of the things that stayed with us was the word “slop.” There is so much slop happening in different directions at the moment. Not because people use AI, but because what comes out of it becomes mediocre or sloppy, created in a rush, just focusing on speed and productivity instead of depth or connection.
It’s interesting to notice how we are moving forward in the world while, at the same time, we’re constantly faced with choices: some tasks genuinely become easier, while others remain just as difficult or change. And we also face the growing question of what is real and what is not real, and how hard it can be to see the difference. We wrote about this recently in our newsletter as well.
Next Wave
Another fact that came up is that we now live in a hyper-vigilant world. We move from one big stress to another. It doesn’t matter if it’s something we watch on TV, a series, or the geopolitical landscape; the waves just keep coming. And because so much is happening at the same time, many of us struggle not only to understand what is going on, but also to decide what we give our attention to. You think you’re on top of the wave, and then it comes crashing back into your face.
All of this makes it even more important to ground ourselves in different ways. And what we mean by grounding is very literal: Putting our feet on the ground of where we actually are ( in reality, in authenticity, in community, in nature) and becoming part of that.
What is Real
You might wonder why, as Flower of Sound, we are so interested in these dynamics. It’s because we strongly believe that sound has a very particular and important role in bringing us back to ourselves and into connection with what is real. Even though it’s not always researched deeply yet, the effect is there: sound helps us feel part of our environment. It’s one of the reasons we go outside, into actual nature, with our feet in the mud, to record.
Yes, we combine those recordings with technology, but we do so with intention. We work with spatial audio because it reflects how we naturally listen, and therefore helps us connect to nature and to our surroundings much more directly. (There are other articles where we explain this in detail.)
And then there is community. Listening together to sound or music creates a shared experience. It brings people into the same moment, which is something we all need right now.
What’s Next
As some of you know, we are building a lab and studio in Milano. It’s not a vast space (around 100 m²), but it will become a playground for experimentation. We will test our music and concepts there and create small events. These are ideas we want to share with the world later on, scale up, or bring them to you individually. For next year, nature sounds will play an even bigger role in our work.
What we hope to create with our music, our experiences, and our nature recordings is a place where we can stay together, be part of a community, and trust the reality of the moment. These ideas feel important to share now.
We hope to start our first events in the spring. If there is something you would love to experience, hear, or see from us, we would love to know.
