Xplore the Sound: How Music and Nature Sounds Deepen Our Sense of Place

What’s in a sound? A huge sense of place and belonging, as well as vibrant memories and emotions, according to both research and anecdotal evidence. At Xplorer Maps, our mission is to connect people and place and we do so with illustrated maps that tell beautiful stories of the places they represent. What if we can add another dimension to this connection?

Our series Xplore the Sound features music by artists from places we’ve depicted on our maps, as well as tunes about those places. It adds a new level to your experience of places, so we wanted to delve into its origins, its purpose, and how music and sound play a part in our memories and experiences. In this article, we look at the power of sound and memory, how we’ve linked music and places, and how nature sounds also have their very important role in defining and helping us relive our experience of a place.

The Power of Sonic Memory

Studies have shown that music is incredibly powerful in activating different areas of the brain, including those associated with memory and emotion. Listening to a piece of music can elicit strong emotions in the present or associated with the past. It can also bring back memories from very far back. This is because music is processed in the same areas of the brain as memories, making it easier for us to recall them.

The strength of these connections has led researchers to look into the value of sonic branding - the process of forming an emotional connection between brands and consumers through sound. In “Audio branding. Brands, sound and communication,” G. Spehr talks about how the connection is made through an anchor of recognition, communication of messages, image transfer and image consolidation (see book here).

For Xplorer Maps, that important connection with places we help you discover is made primarily through storytelling in our maps and associated products. But we’re going further and creating playlists that bring together what we consider to be iconic sounds and music from the states we feature or about those states. Sonic branding is all about making your ears experience what visual branding offers your eyes - a way to instantly recognize a brand through specific triggers. In the same way, we’re looking at building memories and connecting people and place with visual and audio stimuli. 

Moreover, emotions are known to enhance memory processes. Since music evokes strong emotions, it can be involved in forming memories from the start. It can also help us connect more strongly with our own history, as hearing the music from our past often evokes a “feeling of knowing” and of belonging. In fact, a 2007 study looked at how music brought back emotions from one’s past, showing that not only did songs evoke memories, but also overwhelmingly produced strong, and most often positive, feelings.

 
This is why we’ve asked our Xplorer Maps family to share some of the strong memories and associations they make between music, nature sounds, and their lived experiences. We hope this will inspire you and give you some idea about how to connect with places in your own personal way. 

Linking Music and Place through Xplore the Sound

Xplorer Maps create five or six new maps every year, with the goal of connecting people and place. In an effort to better tell the story of the places depicted in our narrative maps, we started putting together musical playlists to better share what’s special about the places we depict. 

How do people connect with the places on our maps? What makes them unique and how can we give our maps even more substance? Xplorer Maps Co-Founder Greg says, “I love music. I love live music even more. I love live outdoor music the most.” And the connection between outdoor musical events and sense of place is particularly strong, which is why we made festivals an important part of our recommendations for exploring Montana, alongside other elements that bring a place to life. In fact, the sounds of bluegrass tunes are some of the first memories that his brother Chris, our artist illustrator, recalls from his first trips to Montana.

Dodgy Mountain Men, Montana Storms

Greg set out to create a few of our Xplore the Sound playlists, starting with Montana, and with a very broad brief. Some music would be contemporary, some would be traditional. We would feature local artists like Stephanie Quayle and Izaak Opatz, but also those who have Montana in their repertoire (like Jimmy Buffett and his “Livingston Saturday Night”) or those with Montana connections like Pearl Jam. Of course, another element of the playlist puzzle is music about a place. Listen to Chris Whitley’s “Big Sky Country” or Dodgy Mountain Men’s “Montana Storms” and feel transported to the wide open and wild spaces of the state.

Explore Montana in detail with one of our state maps

The same goes for places like Alaska, where we’ve featured authentic local music like the “Reindeer Herding Song” by Pamyua, but also well-known pop culture sounds like the theme song to 90s TV show “Northern Exposure.” The eclectic nature of these playlists shows you all the ways in which sound can be associated with a place - it is present in anything from daily life, to rituals and customs, to just a bit of good old-fashioned fun.   

Nature Calling - The Sounds of Places

When we talk about sonic memories and the role sound plays in our connection to places, it’s not just music that can elicit emotions and recollections. In fact, nature sounds are a huge defining element of a place. Listeners of podcast we sponsor, The Trail Less Traveled, will be familiar with the inclusion of sounds from the location where our lead storyteller, Mandela, is recording from. This can include birdsong, native music, or simple backdrops of rivers or the wind in the forest. It all paints a multidimensional picture of a place. 

For Greg, the sound of the loon immediately transports him back to his native Ontario, Canada. We’ve seen above that hearing music or sounds associated with our past gives us a warm feeling of familiarity and belonging. The loon’s almost haunting call is unmistakable and will feel like home to many people from northern North America. As Greg puts it, “it immediately evokes this sense of peace and calm and tranquility, and you know, not necessarily aloneness, but peacefulness, for sure, and for Canadians, that connection a lot is in a canoe.” Greg’s partner Julie associates every bird sound with its respective season as well, adding robins into her emotional connection mix. 

Finally, let’s not forget the bugling elk – an absolutely iconic sound for anyone in the Rocky Mountains, which will send chills down your spine as it transports you to the woods and to hiking orhunting in the fall.

Watercolor Art by Chris Robitaille on a notecard

As for a further-away connection, for Chris and Ness, who are building their home in Kenya at the moment, the jungle and insects immediately connect them to this future place of belonging. At the same time, African memories they’ve made and linked to sounds include the noise of the weaver birds and the sound of the kids singing “Ngutuni Is On Fire” while on a road trip - a mishmash of song and sound that’s guaranteed to stay with them forever. The list of nature sounds and their associated emotional response goes on: hippos at dusk on the river Mara, or the sounds of lions roaring not far from you when you’ve had a puncture at night in the middle of nowhere (Ness’ brother’s actual lived experience!)... They are emotional in the moment and have helped our Xplorer Maps family keep those memories very much alive through the sheer strength of the sound-place-mind connection. 

Discover the Masai Mara through our illustrated jigsaw puzzle

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