About the project

During the times of COVID-19 lockdowns, the 3rd chapter of VozTerra - Sounds from Your Window - was born. We invited people from all over the world to record the nature they heard from their window and explore the impact of our sound footprint. This chapter, carried out in partnership with the Museum for the United Nations - UN Live, also features the participation of musicians, DJs, and artists from different genres and backgrounds, in three compilation albums of musical and sound pieces using the recorded sounds and recordings made by the VozTerra team in the Van der Hammen Reserve and the La Conejera Wetland in 2018.
This collection of pieces represents a profound testimony of the experiences lived by humanity during the year 2020, through the voices of over 50 artists.

A percentage of the revenue generated by this repertoire will be allocated to two social and environmental causes: the Cedros Environmental Corporation Foundation, which works for the protection, restoration, and conservation of the Van der Hammen Reserve*; and the Llorona Records Foundation, which supports elderly traditional music masters in different regions of Colombia (Timbiquí, Guapi, Tumaco, Providencia, San Jacinto). The aim is to preserve the traditional and ancestral cultures of our country.

ALBUM - RESERVA

Reserva is the first of three albums produced by VozTerra in partnership with The Ghetto Project and the Museum for the United Nations - UN Live during the COVID-19 pandemic. As part of the VozTerra - Sounds from Your Window campaign, we invited the digital community of The Ghetto Project to record sounds from their windows during the lockdown experienced in 2019. The collected material, combined with soundscapes previously recorded by VozTerra in the Van der Hammen Forest Reserve and the La Conejera Wetland in Bogotá, Colombia, was used by DJs and producers from the global electronic music circuit to create musical pieces for the dance floor. This collection of pieces is inspired by nature sounds and is presented as a vinyl-style album edited by The Ghetto Project's label: Kaputt Records.

ALBUM - VENTANAS

The album Ventanas is the second of three albums released by VozTerra in partnership with the Museum for the United Nations - UN Live during the COVID-19 pandemic. This collection of songs, organized in two volumes,features the participation of over 30 musicians from 9 countries. Each of these pieces uses soundscapes recorded from people's windows as a sonic input in the creative process, leaving a heartfelt and profound testimony of what the year 2020 meant for these artists.

ALBUM - ALTERACIONES

With Alteraciones, we wanted to approach sound creation through art and experimentation. We invited 15 artists from diverse nationalities, identities, and visions of sound art, electronic music, electroacoustic, and algorithm-generated music. The result is a journey that starts with playing with the sounds of nature and gradually moves towards increasingly human, urban, and political sounds, inviting us to recognize ourselves as part of the sound ecosystem of nature and the city, ultimately listening to ourselves as a society during these historic moments.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We want to express our gratitude to all the musicians and artists who joined this initiative, allowing nature to be an inspiration and instrument in their compositions. We also extend our thanks to those who expressed their feelings and reflections during this critical moment in our history through recordings of sounds and videos from their windows.

VozTerra and the United Nations Museum - UN Live understand the power that culture holds to inspire local actions and generate global change. Therefore, we hope you enjoy these albums and are inspired to take actions that protect our biodiversity and care for our common home.

*The Van der Hammen Reserve and the La Conejera Wetland are natural areas that have been protected for over 20 years thanks to citizen activism. It is crucial to amplify the powerful voice of the community and support this Forest Reserve to become the largest urban nature reserve in Latin America, countering the interests of construction sectors that aim to urbanize this area.