It was when I took a fortnight’s break from music that I began to notice another kind of melody, playing around me, all the time. Not in the silence, for silence is a rare gift here, and I have already come to hear that sweet sound, to some extent. No, I mean it literally. There is music playing in a soundscape, all around us, everywhere.

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I noticed it on my way home from school one day, a few months ago. I felt heavy-headed, foggy from a persistent cold, and the sun was setting. Everything felt a little surreal. The brighter lights and faded colours immersed my attention at first. I could’ve written books about them. But as I was leaving the highway, that intrusive, polluted road that shattered all tranquillity once before started to strike me in a very different way.

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I noticed a rhythm in the terrible thunder of trucks passing by. Each streaking car reached its own crescendo as it approached, then died down as it faded from sight. And in the same way that each car contributed to the traffic, every engine formed a blend of noise. A melody in itself.

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But something of an ugly one… I was never one to favour the sight or sound of traffic. It’s extremely disruptive.

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It faded behind me as I walked into my quieter neighbourhood. The sounds of rushing trucks and cars lingered for a while, growing more distant, until they vanished into a different sound. The sound of my own feet hitting the ground, and the change and keys jingling in my pocket. A background noise… and it stayed with me for the rest of the journey home.

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Throughout that journey, I took in the other sounds in a way I never had before. And no, I’m not talking about the stereotypical imagery – birds chirping in the trees, or children laughing in a far-off playground. That would’ve been nice, but I heard none of that.

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I heard a car or two pass by at regular intervals, drowning out my footsteps just for a moment.

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I heard myself say “Hi” to a lady walking her dog down the sidewalk.

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I heard a door open and close somewhere nearby.

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I heard a young man rolling his bin down a driveway.

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All ordinary, everyday sounds. So many times over the past few years, I’ve heard this noise and thought of it as nothing more than that – noise. Only in this normal, secluded journey did I finally hear what’s escaped my ears for so long.

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A song. A soundscape.

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All these sounds I hear, all the ordinary, everyday noises, form a rhythm. They contribute to a pattern, with the backdrop and the foreground effects all coming together to form a very unique, all-encompassing melody. These sounds can tell you more about the world than days of studying the human environment, if you care to listen. And more than that… they can play the most beautiful song in the world. They can play the song of the world itself. And wherever you go, wherever you are, you can always hear it.

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You just need to learn to listen.

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“Listening to everything your ears can bring and mind decipher
Every glance and each advance, the vast expanse diminishing
Ponder your own relevance, intelligence, your very being
Contemplate validity in eternity with open eyes

I want to feel winds of red upon my face
And I want to see halos draped across the sky
And I want to know a thousand ways to bridge the gap
And I want to be all knowing

I’d self-relieve quite readily the sanctity of ignorance
And now and then refute the Zen that harness men so readily
Take today, I’ll find my way to yesterday or our tomorrow
Take the now, the knowing how, the won’t allow, take everything 

I want to feel warmth of suns upon my face
And I want to see cities stretched across the sky
And I want to know a thousand years beyond my ending
I want to be all knowing I want to feel, I want to see, I want to know, I want to be

Break the chain, swallow depiction, spectral allure preying upon your reverence
Relinquish your god, bury your cradle, anesthetize the ghosts and lies controlling, feeding, masking the you Bury the past, bury the future, stasis of mind fraying combined progression
But you’re not in control, not of your future, not your past, not your hate, not me
‘Cause I’ll find truth in me” – Portal, ‘Severance’