The first outdoor sessions of the year always feel like rediscovering the work from the beginning.
There's something about sound travelling through open air,
across grass, into trees, over water,
that reminds me sound was never meant to be contained inside four walls.
Bowls ring differently outside. The gong blooms differently. Even the breath in the room (or not-room) feels freer.
But outdoor work also teaches humility. The wind can rewrite your session. Birds create their own rhythms. The land becomes a collaborator, not a backdrop.
This year I leaned into that relationship.
Instead of trying to control the soundscape, I let it unfold with what the land offered:
breeze, rustle, distant movement, silence.
Outdoor sessions always remind me that we are not separate from the natural world we're trying to heal in. We're part of it. And when people lie in the grass, listening, something ancient in them recognises that truth.
— Douglas