Sonic Geographies of Hope: How can Song become an Act of Restoration for a Damaged Planet? by Angela Valenzuela (Loica)

I dedicate this work to Robin Wall Kimmerer’s call for acts of restoration for our damaged planet. I choose song composition and performance as a way to find pathways for personal and collective restoration. Through the methods of artistic research I write Songs inspired by my experience of ecological grief, academic reading, interviews to song composers, and journaling. As a contribution from my work, I present a new compositional methodology, Sonic Geographies of Hope. This methodology calls for song composers to write songs grounded in personal and collective grief of our damaged planet. I suggest that this type of songs can become an act of restoration and create collective resonance for more hopeful ways of existing and experiencing the world. This methodology is heavily influenced by the work of A. Hazelwood and her methodology Geographies of Hope in Praxis. While it is inspired by it, it focuses mainly on emotional geographies. This work represents a starting point to explore Song methodologies to nurture immaterial geographies for concrete, structural ecological restoration. It is an exploration to find ways to restore yourself to continue to fight for the dignity of the places, more-than human life and people we love.

To explain my personal journey on how a Song became an act of restoration, I will present the composition methodology of Sonic Geographies of Hope in section 5., Findings, and 6., Discussion.

“I kind of crystallized my understanding of why I garden and why I keep doing this and why I think this is very important today” (R. Larasati, personal communication, May 4, 2025). Here she explains how that album was intentional act to crystalize her rekindling with nature:

“The first story is the gardener song, Tembang Tandur. I was inspired by how all farmer communities mostly have a planting song, and I was really inspired by that. So I wanted to have my own planting song as an urban gardener. So yeah, that's the first song. And then the second song, Akar Wangi, was inspired by a dream where in the dream I was planting the vetiver plant on the riverbanks near my house. And yeah, I think that's more of the kind of trying to find forgiveness to Mother Nature for what I have extracted and destroyed, you know. And even though it was inspired by the stream next to my house that's so polluted, that's why I was planting the pet of a plant. But I also realized that I'm part of the... I'm also the polluter, right? So, I guess, again, that's just a realization that was crystallized in a song, (...) And then the third song is, Kebun Terakhir, which is the last garden. And that was inspired by a lot of the farmer communities who got evicted from their lands. And then recently I also got evicted from my community garden like earlier this year. So yeah, that song came to life in my own case (...) and then the last song was inspired by a specific flower, the night blooming jasmine. It blooms in the evening and it has this very strong scent and yeah that's more of a kind of gratitude like a gratitude song for all it's given by nature and life so you can see it's like a cycle of life. It's like life and death and how they're both part of the same cycle. Yeah, so that's how I composed this kind of consciousness or realization of how I want to restore my relationship with nature. ” (R. Larasati, personal communication, May 4, 2025)

To explain my personal journey on how a Song became an act of restoration, I will present the composition methodology of Sonic Geographies of Hope in section 5., Findings, and 6., Discussion.

“The blooming
The withering
As I serenade
This gardener’s song
To bless this land
fertility”
(Hara, 2021, track 1)

As I mentioned before, I understand Song as a sonic space: a place where both the composer-performer and listener can access their emotional geographies. There is where hope can emerge, flourish, grow as an act of restoration for our damaged planet. My understanding of the concept of Song is heavily influenced by the conversation that I had with Indonesian musician, researcher, gardener and activist, Rara Sekar Larasati, known for her artistic work as Hara. According to Hara, Song is a portal, gateway, or like “giving a mirror to us and also the world and seeing where we are positioned in that specific crisis, be it personal, social, ecological or political” (R. Larasati, personal communication, May 4, 2025). Then a Song is capable of helping us map and locate ourselves in relationship with a specific issue. This mapping constitutes an “Sonic map” where the Song can provide a space for locating emotions and setting them into movement. According to Hara, songwriters can be a bridge for those human connections and feelings through music: “Maybe that's my role in this world. (...) Being a bridge between emotions and human connections and nature as well” (R. Larasati, personal communication, May 4, 2025). When talking about the impact that Song composition and performance has on herself she speaks of music for her as an estuary and a space where she experiences hope (R. Larasati, personal communication, May 4, 2025). Her album Kenduri was entirely inspired by her relationship with nature, making an ode to her garden and gardening journey.

"A dying garden
is a garden that lives in silence
A dying garden
is a garden where I stand
to see and listen
to the overgrown the rooting,
the swaying of true wildflowers
Oh land, water, air
I beg, I plead
Oh land, water, air
These broken bodies."

Hara (2021, track 3)

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3.2 Song as an Act of Restoration