Field Recordings

“Every morning, specially in the fine weather we are currently enjoying, I come out to listen to the birds, which all seem to be specially loud, managing to almost drown all the city noises.”

“Galloping Ghost Arcade in Brookfield, Illinois, claims to be the largest video game arcade in the world. They have over 1,030 arcade games, dating back to the 1970s. When I went on a recent Thursday night around 7pm, for a friend’s birthday, almost nobody else was there.”

“Thousands of people gathered on Saturday, March 22nd at Macy’s in Philadelphia, PA to hear the last performances of the Wanamaker Organ – possibly the world’s largest pipe organ – as the department store marked its final weekend in business. This is an excerpt from the final recital by John Wanamaker Grand Court Organist Peter Richard Conte. My wife gave this piece the unofficial title: ‘an elegy for in-person shopping’.”

“This recording is taken just off of the pier around midnight. The sea was so full of character I was completely enthralled and if you listen carefully you can hear the strong tide pulling the lava rock out to sea with it. I completely fell for its whispers and it was a real struggle to pull myself away to sleep.”

“I took myself to Derbyshire for a few days in early February. I walked up to Stanton Moor with my dog Rosie (not named by me!) looking for a Bronze Age stone circle called the Nine Ladies. Nearby were silver birches with their dead brown leaves rustling in the wind.”

“A morning recording outside Curious Fox Books, Berlin. Children and adults voices, passing bicycles. General ambience from people socialising, children playing. An S-Bahn train arrives to the nearby Gorlitzer Bahnhof.”

“It’s quiet time at the Fulton Fish Market — though the forklifts still move fast and beep loudly. A fish hook is an extension of oneself, used to sling tuna, black sea bass, and salmon, from crates to weighing stations. The market moved from the South Street Seaport to the Bronx in 2005. Now, it’s in an industrial part of the borough, next to the city’s floating prison Vernon C. Bain Center and Rikers Island. It’s mostly wholesale buyers here from restaurants and gourmet markets in the early hours of the morning (open from 2-7 am). There have been less tourists, “cash people,” as they call them, since the market moved from Manhattan.”

“The wonderful steam train arrives at Haworth station. I love how the arrival is reasonably quiet but upon departure you hear the power of the steam engine echoing around the valley.”

“A group of organizers had distributed flyers in our neighborhood for a timely cathartic moment atop the large mountain park that overlooks the city of San Francisco and the bay. It was organized to coincide with the swearing-in of the newest conservative American regime on Inauguration day. But one’s rage can’t be limited to whoever is in the presidential office. We scream for a litany of injustices—an endless list that cannot be exhausted here. Many rages filled my lungs that day and escaped my mouth in an inarticulate howl. Beneath the rage was a yearning for:Justice for Palestinians everywhere. Justice for trans folks everywhere. Justice for refugees everywhere.” Photo credit: Josh Loring

“This morning I was delighted to find that, after quite a few months, this woodpecker has returned! Back to the very same tree. I love how the sound echoes around the garden.”

“Here is a little recording of our local spring. We hiked through 2ft of snow in the -10 temps to the head of our local creek. Due to the deep cold we are in, the ice formations around the spring are spectacular. The quiet babble of the creek makes this such a special place.”

“It was a lovely, bright morning. The birds were loud, trying to compete with the sound of passing planes heading to Heathrow airport.”

“Recorded using a contact microphone at Queen’s Park pond on the Southside of Glasgow, during a cold snap in January. The pond had frozen over (which doesn’t happen often), and people were walking and skating on it. One person asked if I was measuring the thickness of the ice. I handed my headphones round a group of kids, and it was fun to watch their reactions to the sci-fi noises. The faint mechanical sound at the end is a boy driving his remote-control truck across the pond.”

“From a country town called Deniliquin. We stayed at a caravan park down by the river, and at about midnight, I snuck out with my mic and went down to the bank.”

“As soon you walked into the park it was like someone was playing the noise out over massive speakers… It was like a giant congregation point before they headed off for their final resting place of that evening, which is usually under the pier.”

“The surf was about 2.5m with a strong on shore breeze. The beach we recorded on was protected from the wind and made wonderful recording conditions. The beach is in Ecola State Park next to Cannon Beach. I recorded this clip with a stereo pair of Clippy lapel mic’s and a zoom H5. This was recorded Jan 11 2025.”

“The drones are from the enormous petrochemical plant that dominates the skyline of the Immingham docks on the Humber.”

“Lovely quiet winter morning, next to one of the two water mills.”

“I went for my daily walk along the Neris river one sunny afternoon last year. It was all frozen just a couple of days ago. The weather had changed overnight. As I was approaching, I saw these amazing ice cakes slowly drifting along and spinning around making the coziest squeaky sounds. I just stood there with my phone and observing in awe. And a couple of passers by did the same. And their dogs too. I came back the next day with my proper recorder but it was gone.”

“My dog Toby joins in by digging in the earth next to me.”

“Walking across some snowy fields with my dog, Toby, who joyfully runs up and bites the wind sock on my mic as he runs by.”

“Walking with corduroy trousers into frozen puddles.”

“I stood on the doorstep to look at the stars because of the ice bright visibility and heard them calling to each other.”

“Three minutes of fireworks recorded from 23:59 – 00:01 on New Year’s Eve. They get louder and more intense as midnight approaches. I leant out of a top-floor window and heard the rumble of distant fireworks bouncing off the trees behind the houses, then the closer bangs and party squeals from a few doors down. What you can’t hear are the panicked crows swooping around the treetops.”

A slow weave of some of the past year’s Field Recordings, from a thunderstorm in Buenos Aires to whistling wind rattling the windows of a lighthouse in the Outer Hebrides. Summer storm, Vedia, Buenos Aires, Argentina in January 2024 – by Joaquín Conde “I left my recorder one afternoon under the sheet metal eaves of my parents’ house, anticipating the storm: you can hear the incessant thunder, the rain, the neighbour’s children playing, the wind, the birds, and much more…” Stone mill milling corn, a village near Otočac, Croatia, on March 17th 2024 – by Marta Medvešek “When I asked if I may record, the lady said of course – she loves the sound, too, and plays it back from her phone when she’s away from the farm, it helps her fall asleep. She also said she sometimes dozes off while working in the shop, which is in the room next to the mill.” Changing of the Guard, Royal Palace, Stockholm, Sweden on 6th April 2024 – by Alan Hall “On the 50th anniversary of ABBA winning Eurovision” Frogtown, Los Angeles River, USA in April 2024 – by Alan Weedon “I made it around dusk as I wanted to get the call of the Baja California frogs that live on this stretch of the river… it’s a part of the river which hasn’t completely been trapped in concrete as the water table is too high, and as such, the concrete bottom was never able to stick here. It’s a peculiar, but in my opinion stunningly surreal part of LA.” Gibbon morning chorus, recorded in the car park of Fota House, near Cobh, Co. Cork, Ireland in April 2024 – by Damian Drohan “This is a gibbon morning chorus, recorded in the car park of Fota House, near Cobh, Co. Cork. The car park is separated from Fota Wildlife Park by a fence. There is also a scattered chorus of birds, some in the trees overhead, some further away.” Dawn, Chewton, Victoria, Australia in April 2024 – by Camilla Hannan “I recorded this while Easter camping the other week at my friend’s place in Chewton, Victoria. Nothing like sleeping in a tent to get you up early! But this was totally worth it.” Two minutes before the total eclipse, McGill Campus, Montreal, Québec at 3.24pm on 8th April 2024 – by Cristal Duhaime Solar Eclipse, Montreal General Hospital, Montreal, Québec at 3.24pm on 8th April 2024 – by Suzie McCarthy Evening waves, La Napoule, France on 9th April 2024 – by Mira Burt-Wintonick Early morning, RSPB Lakenheath Fen, Suffolk, UK in May 2024 – by Talia Randall “An early morning wander through RSPB Lakenheath Fen, Suffolk, on a bright May morning. According to my bird identification app, throughout the recording, you’ll hear sedge warblers, blackbirds, a pheasant, a great tit, rooks, chiffchaffs, a wren, and the unmistakable call of the cuckoo.” Waves on a pebble beach, Hvar, Croatia on 26th May 2024 – by Eleanor McDowall “Waves fizz and crackle on the shoreline” Bamboo in the wind, Fire Island, New York, USA in June 2024 – by Will Coley Cowbells, Dolomites, Italy in early July 2024 – by Alex Lewis “Around the Dolomites in Northeastern Italy, you frequently come across herds of cows. Munching on grass and wagging their heads, their cowbells echo around the mountain valleys like wind chimes or gamelans.” After the election, Cours Julien, Marseilles, France just before midnight on Sunday 7th July 2024 “People gather to celebrate in Place Jean Jaurès hours after the Nouveau Front Populaire (an alliance of left wing movements in France) beats both Emmanuel Macron’s centrists and the far right to become the largest bloc in the National Assembly” Pétanque, Saint-Savin, France on 20th July 2024 – by Siddharth Khajuria “Full of chaotic bells from an 11th or 12th century Abbey in the town we’re staying in. Listen out for one of the Pétanque players stepping away from the game to admonish / check in on her dog!” Fog at Swallowtail Lighthouse, Grand Manan, New Brunswick, Canada in July 2024 – by Lu Olkowski Stop the Far Right, Waltham Forest Immigration Bureau, London, UK at 8pm on 7th August 2024 “Hundreds of people gather in solidarity at one of the locations threatened by far right violence last night, as anti-racist groups across the UK respond to a list encouraging attacks on immigration centres. This followed a week of domestic terrorism from far right groups, fuelled by a poisonous political and media discourse in this country, which had seen violent attacks on communities – rioters storming hotels housing asylum seekers, targeting mosques, burning a library, hurling bricks and fireworks. On the morning of the 8th August, BBC Radio 4’s Today programme still chose to euphemistically refer to these far right rioters as, “anti-immigration protesters” in their news bulletin, with BBC News previously talking about one far right gathering as a “pro-British march”, newspapers like the Daily Mail and the Express praised the “anti-hate marchers” who had “faced down the thugs” on the 8th despite printing years of dehumanising, racist and Islamophobic headlines which had c

“On a cold December day, birds duet with a brass band”

“Climbing to the top of a lighthouse in the Outer Hebrides, wind sings through the crack in a window”

“Timid water soothes and refreshes the thirsty kelp, which gratefully responds with a crackling chorus of tiny algal voices.”

“On the 50th anniversary of ABBA winning Eurovision”

“The tide was very high and choppy, hitting the side walls. You can also hear planes coming and going from the nearby London City Airport.”

“I was in Powys for a few days, staying in a converted barn for a long weekend and was unexpectedly impacted by Storm Darragh. At first the heavy winds and rain hit woke us up in the dead of night on Saturday morning, increasingly battering the roof until we lost power from late morning until Sunday. Here is a brief recording of the winds from inside the barn before it really kicked off. I have to give a lot of respect to the people who worked tirelessly clearing fallen trees and debris, and the engineers who worked relentlessly to get the power back on for so many communities across the UK. It can’t have been easy; I hope they’re putting their feet up today.”

“I don’t know their species, but we nicknamed them baby cows. Perhaps you’ll hear why.”

“My father and I got into the car and hurried to the railroad crossing, willing to get there in time to record: just minutes earlier we heard the distant sound of a train about to leave town. We got there seconds before the locomotive rushed past us saturating the microphone. The freight cars picked up speed as they pulled away from the station but everything went silent at the peak of this crescendo. Only echoes remained, the ghost of a train heading west and the night gradually reclaiming its habitual sounds. This recording is a statement of principles advocating for the preservation and improvement of my country’s state-run railway system, amid efforts by the national government to dismantle it.”

“Every year in September and October is the deer mating season, you can hear them all over the natural park. It is something unique, especially when you are fortunate enough to also see them.”

“It’s the rainy season now, and at night frogs would show up and start making sounds—somehow it was like they’re talking to each other, forming a busy temporary town under the dark landscape of tall bushes. Rain caused high streams of water flowing, joining the crowded soundscape. I stood at a distance enough to observe, while a few motorbikes passed by, and the smell of the abating rain emerged. I really cherished this sound, as it was tickling my ears these past few days (and that’s why I decided to record and send it).”

“Here is a recording of snow falling on the recorder and into a small stream that feeds into the River Dart. Plus a bonus call from the Jay that nests nearby!”

“I made it around dusk as I wanted to get the call of the Baja California frogs that live on this stretch of the river… it’s a part of the river which hasn’t completely been trapped in concrete as the water table is too high, and as such, the concrete bottom was never able to stick here. It’s a peculiar, but in my opinion stunningly surreal part of LA.”

“Walking around Walthamstow Wetlands in late October, moments before the area was shut down due to a threat from an armed person.”