This CD accompanies and mirrors the book “Listening to Birds and the Sounds of Nature” by Bernard Fort, offering a sensitive and demanding journey through the French audio-naturalist school, from its pioneers to its contemporary practitioners. From Jean Roché to Fernand Deroussen, from Bernard Fort to Marc Namblard, from Denis Wagenmann to Olivier Pichard, from Boris Jollivet to Pascal Dhuicq, and extending to the critical and post-naturalist approaches of Adèle de Baudouin, Grégoire Chauvot, and Mélia Roger, each listening piece affirms a singular way of inhabiting the world through sound. Forests, reed beds, deserts, clear-cut landscapes, wetlands, and nocturnal environments become territories of attention. Here, recording nature is by turns observation, narrative, composition, patient listening, and testimony. A disc designed to teach us how to listen to birds and animals — and, through them, to the environments that sustain them. Patrick Frémeaux