I took some people out on a sound walk the other day in the Hudson Valley as I am wont to do.

What is a "soundwalk" you may be asking yourself.

Soundwalking became a practice that was first codified by the World Soundscape Project and R. Murray Schafer, a composer and acoustic ecologist based in Canada.

We could think about and feel about soundwalking as a form of walking arts, an arts practice in which walking is the central focus and process rather than a product that is immediately tangible. We walk as an act of engagement through landscape towards a goal of understanding or we may walk for no other reason other than to walk as the artistic expression itself.

Soundwalking fits into walking arts in that it is a practice of Deep Listening, of mindful attention to our sonic environment and engagement in and with the sonic world.

Composer and acoustic ecologist, Hildegard Westerkamp of the World Forum of Acoustic Ecology, defines soundwalking as "... any excursion whose main purpose is listening to the environment. It is exposing our ears to every sound around us no matter where we are”.

It was a wet, chilly spring day and we ventured out into the world, mud and all. Each pereson was partnered so that they could take turns being blindfolded and guide one another on the walk without the aid of sight.

Taking away sight can heighten our other senses of hearing, feeling, smell and touch. Sound walks don't need to have this feature but I enjoy providing the opportunity to deeply listen through touch, breath, stillness, and curiosity and we are so visually oriented that we can lose "sight" of the sound so to speak. I, like my mentor and colleague, Pauline Oliveros, love a good pun.

For this kind of sonic exploration we are invited into a sense of play and childlike wonde whereas uually, we are busily "doing" things, getting from point A to point Z, getting things done and not stopping to simply listen to the wind in the leaves, the subtle sound of the wheels of a car on the gravel, our footsteps, birds in flight, a passing conversation, and so on. Soundwalking invites us to slow down, pause, expand our listening capacity to pay attention to everything that is

"below the surface of what is heard, expanding to the whole field of sound while finding focus. This is the way to connect with the acoustic environment, all that inhabits it, and all that there is." - Oliveros

Part of the idea of this non-sighted experiment in Deep Listening is that we can explore our sonic environment not only through hearing but through touch in a non-inhibited way with objects that we come across on the walks such as a lamppost, a bench, a fence, etc., and play with them. Hear them. Find what music these objects want to express! The blindfold takes away a self-conscious inner gaze and provides a freedom to engage in the act of Lila - or divine play.

When we engage in improvisational conversation with objects by touching them to create resonance, playing with ways of engagement, we realize that things aren't as inanimate as we might think them to be. We can truly recognize that everything has a vibration and is in motion molecularly speaking - therefore all thing are innately sound and music at the core.

The walkers discovered the beauty of listening to a tree trunk, a doorknob, a mailbox, holding a dry leaf in their hand to listen to the subtleties of each vein, standing still to listen in all directions to the intricacies of our surrounding soundscape, as well as their own breath. Partnering in listening in this way invites a kind of dialogue, a safety, and a sense of communion with our world and one another.

Take some time one day to go for a sound walk. Notice what is sonically interesting to you and spend some time discovering the nuances and crevices of that sound. Continue walking. Keep listening. If you like, you can bring a friend and partner up with or without a blindfold. You may learn something about the way we listen together and how listening and more importantly, Deep Listening, can be a key to realizing the interconnectivity of everything.