Carlos de Hita

De Hita is a sound technician, though he also defines himself as a “soundscape creator” or even “story teller.” For almost thirty years, he has traveled Spain and most of the planet compiling the voices of Spanish, African, Asian and Amazonian fauna, along with the sounds of traditional labors and natural landscapes.

De Hita defines his goal as to “let nature describe itself through its sounds.” In the course of his career, he has built up an extensive sound archive featuring Spanish wildlife but also wildlife in Africa, Asia and Amazonia, as well as traditional activities and the principal soundscapes of the Iberian Peninsula and the Canary Islands.
These sounds first came to the public’s attention in 1991, when Iñaki Gabilondo invited him to take part in the popular radio program Hoy por Hoy of Cadena SER: “It was an absolute first, nature sounds in the news,” the awardee recalls. “Through our ears and our imagination, the radio transports us to the natural world, which teaches us that its voices sound stronger where it is protected and weaker where it is attacked.” For three years, De Hita has been making himself or, rather, nature heard through his weekly audio blog El sonido de la naturaleza, which appears every Saturday on www.elmundo.es.
The nature sounds in his collection have been reproduced in countless documentaries and films, apps and birdsong guides. They have echoed across the empty rooms of museums and been heard in art galleries, stone churches and interpretation centers. De Hita has mounted sound installations at PhotoEspana and in the Centro Nacional de Arte Reina Sofía (MNCARS), among others. In 2006, he received an Emmy nomination in the music and sound category for his work with National Geographic.