Field Recordings

“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.”

“It’s a park with marshes, trails and boardwalks. It was in the path of totality, so we traveled there to witness the total solar eclipse — about 45 minutes from where we live in Ottawa, ON. Recording consists of loud spring peepers (a type of frog), and people, some Canada geese. I paused the recording midway when my daughter asked me a question. You can tell when the total eclipse happens from people’s reactions changing dramatically. We were all standing and sitting on a wooden boardwalk, so you can hear that too…”

“…a singing extractor hood in my mum’s kitchen which makes this deep rumbling tone when the wind catches it from outside the kitchen window. It only happens with an Easterly wind.”

“Micro bat (large footed myotis bat) sounds and voice reflections from inside the disused (since 1932) Dularcha Rail Tunnel, Mooloolah, Queensland, Australia. Audible sounds include: bat sounds, bird sounds, footsteps, distant trains (from the current train line) and voice reflections. Sound recording by G R Legge, 32 bit float 192 kHz downsampled to 24bit/192kHz on a Zoom F3 with an Audio Technica BP4025 stereo microphone. Click to hear more”

“The various heritage clocks belonging to parliament are serviced here. The sound of two clock movements on test after repair. Their ticks drift in and out of phase with each other and create some interesting cross rhythms that develop over time.”

“The sounds of a working steam tourist railway as engine 967 winds it’s way from Gympie to Amamoor in the Mary Valley, Queensland, Australia. Sounds include ambiences from inside the Club Car, commentary and engine sounds whilst at Amamoor.”

“In August 2023, I participated as an editor in the 2nd “Encuentro Provincial de Bibliotecas Populares” in Chapadmalal, which brings together librarians, independent publishers, and officials from the province’s cultural sector. The event took place in one of the immense hotels of the Chapadmalal Tourist Unit, built during Perón’s first presidency for the use of working-class families, who had just obtained the right to paid vacations in 1945. The day before the event, it was somewhat cloudy with hardly any wind. I took my recorder and went straight down to the beach, next to the cliffs.”

“When we worked on Monument together in 1993 (the musicalised documentary that launched BBC Radio 3’s Between the Ears), my old friend Ian Gardiner was keen to capture what he called a Singing Escalator. It’s taken me 30 years to find one with the right intonation and syncopations!”

“After nearly three consecutive years of drought (caused by La Niña phenomenon in the surface waters of the Pacific and exacerbated by increasing climate change), El Niño brought relief to this part of the planet, and in January, we were able to enjoy the summer rains again. On holidays, 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.”

“This was recorded in a courtyard of a building on Fort Washington Ave., in Northern Manhattan, a few blocks south of Fort Tyron Park and The Cloisters. The birds sound as if they are fighting, though there’s probably some sort of social ritual being performed. Across the street, some teenagers were playing basketball.”

“This is the sound of some sort of building heating system that I encountered on a walk on Riverside Drive by Grant’s Tomb in Manhattan. It was a freezing cold day, so hopefully all that banging was keeping someone or something warm.”

“Bow bells – absolutely going for it – folding off the walls of the buildings surrounding the church. Inside, a brass ensemble is starting to rehearse”

“Quite noisy rain on the ocean…”

“We’d arrived at our campsite in the evening and pitched our tent just as the A82 was being closed, we didn’t find out why but I decided to take advantage of the quiet road. I walked to the shore of the Loch and set up right at the waters edge to record.”

“Our greenhouse had a few panes of glass missing as a result of recent weather, as another summer storm blew through I set up to record in a dry corner of the greenhouse. Then the rain came down, making its way through the broken panels and dripping onto shelves, empty plant pots and then puddling on the floor.”

“A cacophony of clashing sounds at Hampstead Heath fayre on boxing day. Standing among it felt both assaulting and weirdly hypnotic. Sounds of the fairground organ along with the thumping formless music from a ride strangle Wham’s ‘Last Christmas’ which just about peeps through every now and then. Meanwhile birds from the nearby trees squark over the top. Later ‘Carwash’ comes belting in and seems to knock everything into alignment.”

“A party joyfully sings Auld Lang Syne whilst fireworks explode overhead. Recorded using DPA 4060 matched pair.”

“I’d arrived in Provincetown three nights before the solstice, just after a storm had knocked out power to part of the town. Finding my way down a pitch-black Commercial Street, the only thing puncturing the silence was a restless wind chime. On the solstice I watched the light collapse over the water – soft pinks, into purples, into deep blues – before walking home down the December-hushed shoreline, chimes dissolving into bells marking the hour.”

A slow weave of some of the past year’s Field Recordings, from a church in Vilnius to a floating choir in Copenhagen. Orthodox Christmas service, Catholic Church of St. Johns, Vilnius, Lithuania on 7th January 2023 – by Vaida Pilibaitytė “On January 7th I went to an unusual Orthodox Christmas service at the Catholic Church of St. Johns in Vilnius… organised by the Lithuanian Orthodox priests who left Moscow Patriarchate and are now serving Ukrainian refugees and other members of the Orthodox community in Lithuania who do not want to pray in the churches of Moscow Patriarchate. This was a very moving bilingual service, where father Heorhiy Kovalenko was praying in Ukrainian for all those displaced by the war and those helping them, and the carol singers (if this is a correct term) were answering in both Ukrainian and Lithuanian.” Whistling wind rattling the windows, inside the library, London, UK in January 2023 – by Siddharth Khajuria Summer dusk with birds near Vedia, Buenos Aires province, Argentina in January 2023 – by Joaquín Conde “I recorded this landscape on a summer afternoon, in a pasture land where a canal and a country road intersect… Over the steady sound of the frogs and insects, one can hear the calls and songs of the different local birds” Sounding stairs, Kaunas, Lithuania on 19th January 2023 – by Marta Medvešek “I heard the sound from afar, and thought it was in my head until I came closer…” Goose night, Eskdalemuir, Scotland, UK on 24th January 2023 – by Geoff McQueen “It gets really dark in Eskdalemuir. In winter it is sometimes so dark and foggy that you can literally see nothing. Once or twice a winter I step out my back door and can hear the sound of geese flying and honking directly over head. They feel really close. This can last for hours and is wonderfully creepy as you can never actually see the geese. We call this Goose Night.” Crows, Vancouver, Canada on 27th January 2023 at 4pm – by Martin Zaltz Austwick “Walking down the street and a shitload of crows tipped up” Thawing ice, Tammisalo canal, Helsinki, Finland on 4th February 2023 – by Miia Laine “The February full moon had just come up and I was on a stunning Saturday afternoon walk around sunset, the sky was a beautiful red. I stopped by the Tammisalo canal for a few minutes which was still frozen but beginning to thaw very loudly.” Department of Education, Westminster, London, UK on 15th February 2023 – by Tash Walker “I went to Brianna Ghey’s vigil last night outside the Department of Education. It was a very emotional and affecting time, with people standing together holding candles and lighters, whilst chanting Brianna Ghey’s name. We are in the midst of what feels like a suffocatingly transphobic time, but to stand united in love and solidarity for our trans and non-binary siblings felt powerful. I recorded the one minute silence that was held at 7pm, after which we all collectively chanted her name. The silence that hangs in the air after fizzes with anger, power, love and hope. It was heartbreaking and breathtaking.”  Walking in the snow, Vancouver, Canada on 25th February 2023 at 11.30pm – by Martin Zaltz Austwick Underwater, Førdefjord, north of Bergen, Norway in February 2023 – by Jay Richardson “Myself and my co-editor (at The Sonification) went to cover a story about a mining company that has permits to start an open pit project in a rural area about 150km north of Bergen, with all the waste rock and process chemicals to be deposited in the nearby fjord—which also happens to be a pristine National Salmon Fjord… The underwater recording is from a hydrophone at 5 metres’ depth, with some mysterious scrapes and gurgles that could be from marine life, of which there’s a lot… There’s also some drilling sounds, which probably come from the construction and tunnelling work at the mine, although I can’t be sure.”  Woodpeckers in Wandle Park, London, UK on 3rd April – by Andrew Strangeway “I was waiting to meet a friend and there were at least two woodpeckers in the trees in the park. I couldn’t see them, but I could hear them really clearly.” Pigeon in the cinema, London, UK on 15th April 2023 – by Sam Clements and Louise Owen “On Saturday 15 April, a pigeon showcased it’s cinephile credentials by joining a packed audience in the BFI Southbank’s biggest auditorium (NFT 1) for a screening of Mervyn LeRoy’s classic movie, Gold Diggers of 1933… This recording was taken in the audience, before the film was started, whilst venue staff tried to coax the pigeon towards a fire escape. It starts just as they decided it might be worth playing some cat sounds into the PA system.”  Argentino Lake shores in front of Spegazzini Glacier, Santa Cruz, Argentina in April 2023 – by Joaquín Conde “I had the chance to leave my recorder by the shore of Argentino Lake for a few minutes; facing the imposing walls of Spegazzini Glacier. It was a cloudy day, not too windy, and a ligh

Radio With Palestine is a series of live transmissions. The broadcast on 11 November 2023 included streams from: London (Cat Byrne) Bruxelles (Nele Möller, Inne Eysermans) London (Emily Moore) Chania, Crete (Maria Papadomanolaki) It also featured sounds from a long-term stream from Rue de la Poudrière, Bruxelles by Stéfan Piat. The show was mixed live from Arnes, Catalunya by Mort Drew. Radio With Palestine is a project by the Soundcamp cooperative (soundtent.org) and the Acoustic Commons Network (acousticommons.net) in partnership with: Locus Sonus – locusonus.org Wave Farm WGXC in Acra, Upper Hudson Valley, New York – https://wavefarm.org/ Radio Alhara – https://www.radioalhara.net

“Paddling in the Copenhagen harbor with hundreds of people and looking up at thousands of people lining the shores singing together…”

“17mph winds rattled these chimes so much that their sound rose up over the noise of the road and the nearby canal. Suspended on top of a tall metal pole, the adjoining ropes creak like an old door as gusts of wind set them in motion.”

“Limnodynastes Peronii, Litoria Verreauxii and a mystery frog one evening near the water tank.”

“On 11th November 2023, hundreds of thousands of people marched peacefully through London calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. Chanting “ceasefire now” and “stop bombing children”, organisers estimated 800,000 people walked the route from Hyde Park to the American Embassy in Vauxhall. Inflammatory rhetoric from the UK Government in the days running up to the march, particularly from the Home Secretary Suella Braverman, had branded the peaceful protestors as “hate marchers” with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak producing a statement on 3rd November complaining that the march seeking a ceasefire was scheduled to take place on Remembrance Day – a day designed to mark a ceasefire. Sunak suggested that it posed a “clear and present risk that the Cenotaph and other war memorials could be desecrated”. Counter protestors, from far right groups, supposedly gathered to ‘defend the cenotaph’ on Saturday, after members of the UK Government offered more solidarity to a block of stone than it did to the more than 11,000 people, including 4,500 children, who had lost their lives since 7th October. It was these far right protestors, “who broke violently through police lines, toppling over metal barricades, throwing missiles and temporarily forcing officers back as they surged towards the Cenotaph” (Guardian 11th Nov).”

“A strong wind blows across the canyon, rustling trees. The sound of crickets can be heard all around.”

“Through this sound, I was trying to find a connection to the historical context of the beach, and to link it with the idea of the distant groan of glaciers.”

“Recorded on a late night in August, up at my brother-in-law’s house in Westchester, north of NYC. Heavy cricket and cicada season, but also on a flight path for a regional airport.”

“When I went to Los Glaciares National Park in the province of Santa Cruz, Argentina, I had the chance to leave my recorder by the shore of Argentino Lake for a few minutes; facing the imposing walls of Spegazzini Glacier. It was a cloudy day, not too windy, and a light drizzle was beginning to fall. Occasionally, the engine sound of a tourist catamaran can be heard at a distance.”

“I recorded this landscape on a summer afternoon, in a pasture land where a canal and a country road intersect; around 5 kilometers away from the center of town. Over the steady sound of the frogs and insects, one can hear the calls and songs of the different local birds: the pampa finch or “verdón” (Embernagra platensis), the rufous-collared sparrow or “chingolo” (Zonotrichia capensis), the rufous hornero (Furnarius rufus), the red-winged tinamou (Rhynchotus rufescens), the southern lapwing or “tero” (Vanellus chilensis), the freckle-breasted thornbird or “tío-tío” (Phacellodomus striaticollis) and the house wren or “chochín criollo” (Troglodytes aedon). A few silent wild cavies or “cuises” (Galea leucoblephara, probably) walk by near the recorder, and some vehicles pass by the road.”

“We woke up at 6am on our last day in Mallorca to squeeze one final sea swim into the trip. We were the first ones in at the local beach and whilst it was raining we were kept company by the birds who were just finishing their breakfasts.  We placed our mic on the beach as close as we could get to the water without splashing the phone.  Sam & Louise, 90 Minutes Or Less Film Fest Podcast  @90minfilmfest “

“I was out in the fields by the River Thame yesterday morning and the geese were clearly excited by the amount of water across the meadows and were making a huge racket as they flew around in gaggles. Possible best listened to with headphones to get the stereo effect.”

“A binaural recording of an electrical storm followed by heavy rain from a back garden in East London at 1am” Image credit: The Rebecca Project

“These are the church bells of St Bartholomew in the town of Lostwithiel around 8.30pm on a still evening. The next morning I put my foot in it by congratulating my bell ringing neighbour on how great they’d been sounding, only to be told that they were taking the summer off and last night’s ringers were from the neighbouring village of Tywardreath.”

“The Tigre Delta is among the world’s largest, and it is one of the only major deltas in the world that does not empty into a sea or ocean. It flows instead into the Río de la Plata, which separates Argentina and Uruguay, after the Río Paraná splits into several smaller rivers and forms a multitude of sedimentary islands covered in forest and grasslands.”

https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/07/24/italys-mounting-attack-lesbian-parents “In January, Italy’s right-wing government ordered state agencies to cease registration of children born to same-sex couples. Now they’ve taken it a step further: a state prosecutor in northern Italy has ordered the cancellation and re-issuance of 33 birth certificates of lesbian couples’ children, endangering access to medical care and education. Non-gestational mothers are receiving letters informing them that they are being retroactively removed from their children’s birth certificates. New birth certificates are being issued listing the name of only one of the child’s mothers. “ https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/08/03/london-protest-over-italys-abhorrent-move-to-strip-lesbian-mums-from-birth-certificates/