Now Hempton’s passion is the preservation of true natural silence, which he describes not as the ‘absence of something, but the presence of everything.’ It is many sounds, he says: Silence is the moonlit song of the coyote signing the air, and the answer of its mate. It is the falling whisper of snow that will later melt with an astonishing reggae rhythm so crisp that you will want to dance to it. It is the sound of pollinating winged insects vibrating soft tunes as they defensively dart in and out of the pine boughs to temporarily escape the breeze, a mix of insect hum and pine sigh that will
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