“While a picture may be worth a thousand words, a soundscape is worth a thousand pictures"- Bernie Krauss (2013).

What is soundscape? As defined by Bernie Krauss (2016), a soundscape is a sound or a mixture of sounds that forms or arises from a place with immersive environment quality. The scientific study of the soundscape is the subject of acoustic ecology or soundscape ecology while the artistic study of the soundscape is the subject of sound art and soundscape composition. The art of soundscapes may expand into electroacoustic music performance, mixed media or installation form. My Ph.D. artistic-creative research explores the relationship between soundscapes ecology and Malay culture in defining identity through sound art practice.

Nada Bumi is a creative-artistic practice based research project and consists of work in progress of five electroacoustics soundscape compositions and five soundscapes ecology collections. I have managed to complete two electroacoustics soundscapes works from Nadi Bumi theme and the remaining three are in sketch form. Like a Makyung music style and program, the first work - Bertabuh is an opening music or introduction for the theme in quasi-acousmatic style and immersive sound diffusion from eight surround speakers based on found sounds or soundscapes of rainforest, which aim to invoke and recall the nature spirit dialectic images in relation to Makyung mystical world settings. The spatio-temporal based of the immersive sounds creates two sonic worlds: reality and illusion. This work may include visual projections to enhance the characteristic of the work and was programmed to be performed at the Nottingham New Music Weekend and Midlands New Music Symposium, University of Nottingham but was postponed due to Covid-19. The second work - Menghadap is a live electroacoustics soundscapes performance for Bass - Viola da Gamba which is similar to a Malay Rebab based on the same theme and uses ‘generic’ Serotine bat echolocation ultrasonic sound recordings retrieved from archive for a dialogue between the music instrument in abstract sonic world. My main idea for this work is to use the False Serotine Bat species echolocation signature which is an endangered species and only can be found in Malaysia. But for this work, I only manage to use the generic Setorine species bat echolocation found in the archive. I have contacted Dr. Juliana Senawi from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, to obtain the bat echolocation through field recordings but due to Covid-19 pandemic, the recording activity was postponed. This work will be premiered for Bristol New Music Festival 2021. The third work - Nu is an electroacoustic soundscape work for a Pipe Organ and ambient soundscapes of Gua Tempurung, Perak. The fourth work - Enchanted Rain is an electroacoustic soundscape work for Voice, Flute, Violin, Cello and MIDI-sampler based on a poem by National Laureate, Muhammad Haji Salleh - Rain. The fifth work - San , is a closing work for the theme and a quasi-acousmatic soundscape work with sea soundscapes from Kelantan.

Nada Bumi web is a work in progress digital platform to disseminate the soundscapes ecology field recordings collection in its original sonic form from selection of Malaysia's most important cultural and heritage sites as listed by UNESCO and the Department of National Heritage Malaysia. These recordings were then synthesised to be used for the five electroacoustic soundscapes compositions for creative and concept expression.