There’s no doubt in my mind that there is more to sound than just the stuff, however notable, that vibrates on my eardrums and sends messages to my brain. My lack of ability to interpret subsonic information the way that whales and elephants and other creatures can do doesn’t mean that I am completely insensible to them. I’ve had enough experience with not consciously hearing but still knowing there’s something significant happening in my environment that I can truly appreciate the astonishing sensitivity so many animals have to the ways that the universe is sonically alive and active around them.

That’s part of what is so compelling about music to me: that it is a further layering of these forces in ways that transcend what’s strictly scientifically explainable in order to move the heart and shape the soul. The very atoms around me can make me shiver with joyful and eager anticipation of the sonic adventure that is to come, while I wait for the performance to begin. As music engulfs me, I feel more alive, more literally attuned to all of existence.