Sounds of nature brought Macondo to life in ‘one hundred years of solitude’
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A team including biologist Diego Calderón and sound recordist Sebastián Martínez captured sounds from the Colombian Caribbean to create the soundscape for the Netflix adaptation of Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude. The creators of the series wanted the audio to reflect the novel’s setting, which is inspired by the Caribbean coast of Colombia, after finding the initial recordings made during filming didn’t match the story’s atmosphere.
Calderón and Martínez recorded over 30 gigabytes of material, including the calls of approximately 95 bird species, five amphibians and reptiles, and various mammals and insects, across diverse habitats ranging from dry forests to wetlands. The team paid close attention to detail, even recording sounds of caged birds to represent a scene in the novel. They discovered numerous illegally captured wild birds during one recording session, highlighting the pressures facing the region's biodiversity.
Beyond animal sounds, they also recorded ambient noises like wind, water, and sounds from rural life, and even the sounds of farm animals like pigs, a recurring symbol in the story. Andrés Silva, manager of the sound design studio La Tina, emphasized the importance of building a living ecosystem within the series’ soundscape, using over 700 audio channels. He and his team carefully selected sounds to complement the narrative, sometimes even using silence to create a particular effect.
Calderón hopes this immersive soundscape will inspire appreciation for the region’s biodiversity and contribute to its conservation.
