frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen>But ‘material’ is a small part of a big world. So, musicians need also to take nourishment from the natural world – that exuberant external soundscape of natural, mechanised and human sounds. As emblematic of the sounds of the natural world, we offer Michael Pisaro’s evocative ricefall. frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen>Sadly, it also underlines the kind of listening that is currently in short supply. The natural world chastens and humbles us – a reliable anti-toxin to shallow virtuosity.