Cosmo Sheldrake captures the essence of the natural world on 'Eye to the Ear'

In some ways, the strange, beautiful music of Cosmo Sheldrake sounds like nothing else. But it also sounds like everything.

The English musician and composer is deeply inspired by nature, blending field recordings and samples of wildlife noises with his own musical improvisations to create music that feels profoundly connected to the world around us.

"It always seemed clear to me that animals had cultures," he tells World Cafe during a video call. "That they inherit language in similar ways. That they're highly conscious beings like us."

Being fascinated with the sound and rhythm of nature's consciousness is something that seems almost genetically pre-determined for Cosmo — he is the son of Rupert Sheldrake, a biologist known for his theory of morphic resonance, and Jill Purce, a voice teacher specializing in overtone chanting. His brother, Merlin Sheldrake, is a notable biologist and fungi expert.

In this session, Cosmo joins us to talk about his latest album, Eye to the Ear, about his creative process, his influences and some of the stranger sounds he's captured out in the field.

This episode of World Cafe was produced and edited by Miguel Perez. Our senior producer is Kimberly Junod and our engineer is Chris Williams. Our programming and booking coordinator is Chelsea Johnson and our line producer is Will Loftus.