My name is Fabian Almazan, founder and director of Biophilia Records, two-time Grammy nominee,
and current PhD candidate in Creative Practice and Critical Inquiry at Harvard University. I'm
writing to respectfully request permission to place AudioMoth devices (small, low-impact audio
recorders: https://www.openacousticdevices.info/audiomoth) in Harvard Forest this summer as
part of my interdisciplinary research-creation project.
As a musician whose work explores the intersection of art and environmental awareness, my
research bridges musical composition, environmental sound, and ecological education. The
Harvard Forest recordings would serve as a crucial pilot phase for a larger project called "The
Soundtruck,
" scheduled for implementation in New York City during 2026.
Specifically, I would like to:
Place 3-5 AudioMoth devices in selected locations within Harvard Forest
Conduct recordings over a 2-3 week period in June 2025
Ensure minimal disruption to wildlife and research activities
Share the collected data with Harvard Forest if it would be valuable to your research
The recordings from Harvard Forest would inform both my compositional work and provide a
methodological foundation for the NYC project. In New York, I will work with children from
Harlem to collect and edit nature sounds, which will then be distributed through Biophilia
Records with proper ASCAP registration. This creates an educational opportunity with dual
benefits: teaching children about sound editing and environmental awareness, while showing
parents how their children's earnings can be invested in custodial Roth IRAs. As a father
myself, this is one of the most important parts of the project for me.
The culmination of the project involves a vehicle-mounted speaker system broadcasting these
nature soundscapes in urban spaces—creating an ironic situation where we need noise permits to
play sounds that would naturally exist without anthropogenic interference.