Belt of Song is an interspecies music project using bird and bat songs recorded along the former Iron Curtain between Finland and Albania as the basis for a new album. Combining field recordings, voice, acoustic instruments, and soundscapes, the project explores non-human musicality and the possibility of a more unified and connected Europe.

In 2026, I undertook an overland field-recording journey tracing the European Green Belt: a roughly 12,500-kilometre ecological corridor that emerged along the former Cold War border zones of the Iron Curtain. Once a line of political division, it became, in many places, an unintended refuge for wildlife, as restricted access and limited development allowed habitats to persist. Today, the Green Belt represents both a remarkable ecological legacy and a possibility for transforming former borders into spaces of connection.

During the journey, I recorded landscapes and bird and bat song vocalisations across 11 countries and 8 National Parks. The route connected places with distinct but interrelated histories, from Finland’s NATO frontier with Russia to Albania, where protests against proposed luxury coastal developments threatening sensitive ecosystems have become part of the wider ‘Flamingo Revolution’. These struggles raise questions about biodiversity, democratic self-determination, and Albania’s European future.

The landscapes and inhabitants of the European Green Belt are not just the subject of the project, but also its primary musical starting point.