‘Get Real’, David Bowie x Brian Eno, feat. Nature

To commemorate Earth Day 2024, Brian Eno and David Bowie released a remix of their 1995 song ‘Get Real’, first featured on Bowie’s 19th studio album, ‘Outside’. 

The new version, called ‘Get Real- Sounds Right Mix’ features a new artist: Nature. 

Sounds Right is a music initiative launched by the Museum for the United Nations that seeks to raise awareness on environmental matters. 

The project took a very original turn registering Nature as an artist, as listening to the tracks that credit her as a featured artist will direct part of the royalties to high-impact conservation initiatives. 

Under the premise that “4.6 billion years ago, a star was born but never credited”, Sounds Right aims at giving nature back the recognition she deserves as a creative force, at the same time as it raises the conversation about its conservation. 

As for the ‘Get Real’ mix Brian Eno, through an Instagram post promoting the release, expressed that he wished to give back something to nature for being a significant source of inspiration for his music. 

This new version of the song features real sounds taken from landscapes and field recordings of wildlife, and through a very detailed work of mixing and editing, nature seems to take over the track and amalgamate organically into the “human” sounds. The sounds of all kinds of animals fuse into the sounds of the instruments in a magnificent and, rather enigmatic way.

In artistic terms, adding landscape sounds or field recordings into music, or adding extra-musical elements into a piece isn’t a new thing. Actually, it’s a practice that has been around for more than 50 years (think of the experimental music of Pierre Schaeffer and Pierre Henry who, though differently, began to work assembling pieces that put together recorded sounds taken from natural or industrial environments). 

Brian Eno and David Bowie are part of an extensive list of artists who collaborate with the initiative, like Aurora, Aterciopelados, Ellie Goulding, and Tom Walker. 

You can listen to the track here.

You can learn more about the initiative here.