Field Recordings

“It’s a cave at the foot of the hill at Assos under the old Venetian fortress. There’s a sea entrance (the light in the centre) and a small hole that gives access from a small pebble beach.”

“I was on a walk in Chopwell Woodland Park which is on the fringe of Gateshead, and I came across this beautiful pylon. I heard it first fizzing with static among the trees, so when I saw it, I had to get my recorder out and capture it. That evening there was an amazing thunderstorm, which the pylon was clearly feeling hours before I could.”

“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!”

“A journey on the underground. Eight and a half minute field recording. London, April 2024.”

“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.”

“disgusting – shall I put it up? Lol sure. It was so squelchy. Never heard an egg like it.”

“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.”

“We were in a place called Bratch, talking a walk along a canal towpath. We had a big trivial argument, saw some baby moorhens and nice houseboats, and on the way back to the car heard a full-throated scream of “Sweet Caroline! Bababa”

“It was recorded on summer solstice 21st of June in Stonehenge last week, where thousands of people gathered there to wait for the sunrise. Loads people brought drums and all kinds of instruments with them and was improvising together spontaneously. Chaotic but inviting.”

“I made this recording recently whilst on tour in Norway. There was a national alarm test (similar to what we had in the UK a while back) and I was down by the Harbour… Just captured on my iPhone so not the best quality.”

“Don’t know if it qualifies as a field recording–it’s water draining through the pipes after a washing machine spin cycle.”

“In the first week of summer in June 2024, I was out recording some interviews for my radio program on environment at the Curonian Spit National Park. There I visited a group of 11 busy goats, munching on a fresh grass in the meadow, which conservationists would like to see less dominated by reed. That is why the goats have been transported here by a ferry across the lagoon from the farm in the mainland for the summer. They arrived just a few days ago and were still figuring out who is in charge. But as I stood there with my microphone in the sun, they got curious and came closer, but never stopped enjoying their lunch.”

“Waves fizz and crackle on the shoreline”

“Recorded on Saturday 4th May 2024 in Aulus-les-Bains, a little village nestled in the French Pyrenees. I was out for a walk around the village watching the soft colours of the houses take on the faded glow of the evening sun when I came across a field full of donkeys who were running towards food. You can hear the cowbells around their necks sing out as they eat together. In the distance I could hear a wind chime from one of the houses near the fields and together with the roar of the river that runs through, the birds, bees and scuttle of insects, it felt like a brief moment of everyday magic.”

“This is a gibbon morning chorus, recorded in the car park of Fota House, near Cobh, Co. Cork. The car park is seperated from Fota Wildlife Park by a fence. There is also a scattered chorus of birds, some in the trees overhead, some further away. You can also hear children’s voices as they wander the wildlife park. From where I recorded I couldn’t see the Gibbons, but I could see a Wallaby wandering around, within 100 metres of where I stood. Unfortunately it’s very difficult to get a 100% clean recording here as there are always cars arriving and departing from the house and wildlife park, and there is a very busy road within audible range.”

“Created by the architect Nikola Bašić in 2005. Everytime I visited the sea organ it was crowded with tourists. This time – although only for a brief moment – I was alone with the organ and the sea.”

“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.”

“It’s a contact mic recording of a corrugated iron roof sheet rattling in the wind. There was a fisherman in a nearby hut singing and you can just pick him up from time to time during the recording I was squatting on the ground with the mic attached to the sheet via a clothes peg, next to a row of fishermen’ huts.”

“I was in Exeter last weekend and as I walked round the north side of the cathedral this wren was singing louder than the bells.”

“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.”