THE JUDGES
Get to know your judges, their favourite tunes and nature sounds.
Miles Richardson
Prize founder, Chair and professor of nature connection
Favourite Nature Tune:
Simple Things by Minnie Riperton
Favourite Nature Sound:
The blackbird’s song
Elizabeth Alker
BBC Radio 3 Presenter and Author
Favourite Nature Tune:
is... too difficult to choose but I love the Canadian composer Jonas Bonnetta and his evocations of natural landscapes in remote parts of his home country. His album Drifting Snow conjures the wintery climes in the secluded parts of Prince Edward County. It's perfectly evocative of the temperature and the landscape so I'd chose anything from that album but maybe the track 'ii' is my favourite.
Favourite Nature Sound: the lapping of a tide/waves gently crashing on a shore.
Jason Singh
Sound artist, nature beatboxer, producer, DJ, performer and facilitator
Favourite Nature Tune:
The Lost Words Blessing by The Lost Words: Spell Songs.
Favourite Nature Sound:
Nature is music and music is nature, for me both are one and the same. I hear and see profound rhythms and melodies appearing in birdsong, the movement of landscapes, sea, wind, architecture, language and all lifeforms. I can't help but experience everything as sound and music in some shape or form.
Jinny Lyon
Head of Development at The Listening Planet and Nature Recovery Specialist
Favourite Nature Tune:
Feeling Good" by Nina Simone. While it doesn’t celebrate nature in the traditional sense, I love how the lyrics link happiness to the natural world. It’s one of those songs that just feels perfect for listening outdoors.
Favourite Nature Sound:
I’d have to choose the song of the male Blackbird. It’s a sound that feels like home to me, while being undeniably beautiful.
Sam Lee
Mercury Prize-nominated musician and nature conservationist
Favourite Nature Tune:
‘It’s Raining Men’ (“God bless Mother Nature, she’s a single woman too”) by The Weather Girls
Favourite Nature Sound:
Nightingales
Melissa Harrison
Novelist and nature writer
Favourite Nature Tune:
'4 Degrees' by Antony
and the Johnsons
Favourite Nature Sound:
The loud plop of a water vole entering a river: somehow these shy creature have never mastered the art of the silent entry, and their splashy sounds are often the best way to know they're there. With increasing hope for their recovery, the plop of a water vole always cheers my soul.
Cosmo Sheldrake
Multi-instrumentalist musician, composer and producer
Favourite Nature Tune:
‘Women Gathering Mushrooms’ - Bayaka Forest People, recorded by Louis Sarno
Favourite Nature Sound:
Hmm that is an almost impossible question, but maybe this very particular sound that some ravens make on the West coast of Canada that sounds like a water droplet.
Alice Boyd
Musician, sound artist and audio producer
Favourite Nature Tune:
Not sure I can pick one, but I recently saw Attacca Quartet perform Caroline Shaw’s ‘Orange’, and I had goosebumps all over.
Favourite Nature Sound:
“Psithurism” - the soft rustling sound of wind in the trees.