Gordon Hempton is one of the world’s few acoustic ecologists. He travels the world recording what he calls “the last quiet places,” places completely untouched by modern human sound. Hempton records remote locations on the other side of the world as well as nearby wonders, such as the sound of the tide washing over a piece of spruce driftwood in a national park. He describes silence not as the lack of noise (there is no such thing, the earth itself emits sound), but rather as presence (the capacity to be fully attentive to the space where you are).