It was only in researching for this show that I realised the equinox actually refers not to a whole day but a single moment in time, when the sun faces directly over the equator, granting the entire globe with roughly equal length days and nights around it. I was captivated by this idea of a single moment of equilibrium and the impossibility of capturing that – which is much like the experience of listening itself, always dissolving as soon as you try to catch hold. And the equinox moment itself is both something of a physical reality, and pure idea, constructed entirely by an imaginary line humans have drawn and named the equator. Again, this paradox seems to resonate with the act of field recording, which both records a physical reality of a time and place through the sound waves that are imprinted through a microphone, but also creates a totally new and artificial object of its own.

Whilst lines of longitude go from east to west and determine clock time, lines of latitude go from North to South and determine climate, with the suns rays becoming more intense the further south we go. Whilst enjoying one of the first sunny days we’ve had in London (where I am) in a long time, I decided to structure this mix along lines of latitude, moving from North to South through the Northern Hemisphere. I wonder if listeners will be able to feel the sun’s intensity increasing through their ears.

It was a privilege to shape these extraordinary sounds into a journey. Whilst making it I found myself contemplating the equinox as a time of both stillness and motion, sameness and divergence, meeting and departure – and I invite you to listen into this space of contradiction with me. 

Anna Clock is a composer, sound artist and researcher. Their practice is rooted in live acts of listening and challenging audiences to listen to each other, and their world, in new ways. They play the cello and also cut hair. They are currently pursuing an AHRC-funded Collaborative Doctoral Award with the Science Museum and Royal Holloway University exploring quantum aurality and how we listen to outer space. 

Recent works have been heard in Barbican, Royal Court Theatre, Wellcome Collection, The Albany, 100 years Gallery (UK), Project Arts Centre, Gate Theatre (IRL), Times Square Arts, Irish Arts Centre (USA) Dresden Staatschauspiel, Staatstheater Mainz (GER), CIRKO (FIN) and on Radio 4, Radio 3, Resonance FM and RTE Lyric radio. 

Playlist:

[01:19-03:45] A mysterious voice memo at the piano (me)

[03:45-05:20] Bartlett park (me) | UK

[05:20-07:16] Dawn’s Chorus: Mating Calls of Moor Frogs at Sunrise: Jakub Orzecki | Poland

[07:16-10:11] Howling Jackals: Jan Brelih | Slovenia

[10:11-12:01] Wood Frogs at the Library: Mike Bullock | USA

[12:01-15:10] Dawn Chorus in the Early Days of Spring: Enis Çakar | Türkiye

[15:10-20:05] Incoming Tide at Gold Bluffs Beach: Kelly Rafuse | USA

[20:05 -25:45] Snowfall in Himalayas: Jan Brelih | India

[25:45-31:59] Soft Dawn Chorus in the Jungles of Nepal: George Vlad | Nepal

[30:22-35:37] Himalaya Forest Valley: Jan Brelih | India

[35:37-40:36] Himalayan Shepherd: Jan Brelih | India

[40:36-45:33] Dawn Chorus at Mora River: Giselle Ragoonanan | Trinidad and Tobago

[45:33-48:07] Busy Dawn Chorus in the Savannah: Sounding Wild | Sierra Leone

[48:07-49:38] Gentle Wind at Dusk in the Savannah: Sounding Wild | Sierra Leone

[49:30-51:42] Hippopotamus Preparing for the Night: Sounding Wild | Sierra Leone

[51:42-52:24] Nocturnal Pulse: Usun Apau Ancient Forest: Jan Brelih | Malaysia

[52:24-53:51] Night Walk in Rainforest Discovery Center: Gina Lo | Malaysia

[53:51-58:05] Bornean Anura: Gina Lo | Malaysia

Credits to Asa 808 and Ana Roxanne, Agustin Pereyra Lucena Quartet, Andreas von Wangenheim, Awakened Souls, Dead Man Winter, Djrum, 혁오 (HYUKOH), Sunset Rollercoaster 落日飛車, Felbm, Frankie Reyes, Icarus, Hana Stretton, H.Takahashi, Jeff Parker, Jordi Savall, Julian Lage, Julianna Barwick, Laurie Spiegel, Matonizz feat. Brian Kelley, Meitei, Omni Gardens, Rosie Lowe & Duval Timothy, Sohn, Sonmi541, Starling Arrow, Ted Greene, Yutaka Hirasaka, Wau Wau Collectif.

Asa started making music at the age of six, first learning classical piano and guitar (despite being seen unfit by some peers due to a heredofamilial essential tremor), later specializing in music theory and composition, jazz and improvisation. As a teenager, the non-binary artist released a 5 track EP with their first solo ambient project Hasta la otra méxico!, of which especially 'Túrána hott kurdís' attracted a lot of attention, hitting almost 1 million views on vimeo & youtube. Driven by their love for electronic music, Asa started producing and DJing as ASA 808, releasing on George FitzGerald's MakeMusic, Soundspace, and their own TOYS imprint and playing at festivals and clubs across Europe and Asia.

Earth.FM has the pleasure and honour to announce a new work with multidisciplinary artist, field recordist, and DJ, Cameron Randall.

Cameron’s practice involves composing assemblages of field recordings, electro-acoustic sound, sampling, synthesis, AI models, and digital processing. His previous work has involved sculpture, algorithms, sound, moving image, text, and installation, while his Listening With radio series is broadcast every month on Resonance FM.

In this sound piece, Cameron takes us on a journey across the planet with an evocative, intense, surprising, and utterly beautiful sound montage of  Earth.FM recordings made during this Solstice season. 

In his own words:

"This piece was created from field recordings made by a number of international field recordists around this time of the year. These recordings are so rich and diverse that I was immensely inspired by their depth and detail. I am interested in the remixing, morphing, and translation of sound—where the audio both retains its original sonic quality and also becomes something new. Every sound you hear in this piece originates from the initial recordings provided to me. The origins of some sounds are obvious; some are more opaque. This is a line I often like to blur and play with. Thank you so much to Melissa Pons for commissioning me to do the piece for Earth.FM."

To work creatively with precious natural soundscapes is an exercise of affection and appreciation for our world. We truly hope that his cosmic piece will inspire you in many ways.

You can also listen to the original field recordings:

Jan Brelih: 

• ‘Cave Entrance in the Balkans’
• ‘Dusk Cicadas: Usun Apau Ancient Forest’
• ‘Falling Snow in the Forest’
• ‘Frog Echoes’
• ‘Gentle Waves of Black Sea’
• ‘Talking Bamboo’

Serge Bulat: 

• ‘Winds of Onemo’ 

Rafael Diogo: 

• ‘Where the Wild Things Whisper’ 

Ezra Gray: 

• ‘Crook tn the River’ 
• ‘Night Time in Sloe Copse Wood’

Tom Kelly: 

• ‘A Sandstorm in Death Valley’

Gina Lo: 

• ‘Rolling Pebbles at the Glass Cove’

Andy Martin: 

• ‘Golden Mantled Howlers at Dawn’
• ‘Midnight Insect Chorus Near Corcovado’

Phil Mill: 

• ‘A Very Close Wolf’

Martha Mutiso: 

• ‘Amphibian Chorus’
• ‘Chorus in the Amani Nature Forest Reserve’

Melissa Pons: 

• ‘In the Valley – Countryside of Santo Antão’

Melissa Pons and Jocelyn Robert: 

• ‘Ebb Current in Rocky Shore’

Ivo Vicic: 

• ‘Snow Storm with Powerful Thunder’

Gregor Vida: 

• ‘Wind, Squeaking Tree and Light Birds’

George Vlad: 

• ‘Morning in Zimbabwe Village’

In this episode of Wind Is the Original Radio, the Earth.fm podcast, site curator Melissa Pons talks with Jakub Orzęcki. An acoustic ecologist and field recording artist based in Wrocław, southwestern Poland, Jakub was nominated for the Sound of the Year Awards in 2022, in the category of Best Natural Sound.

Jakub has made it his mission to highlight the noise pollution increasingly affecting acoustically sensitive areas, and to archive changes occurring in sonic environments. However, as well as exploring Poland’s remote wilderness and underground environments, his work also encompasses the acoustic heritage of the local folklore and traditions which are coming under threat from globalization. With his Polish Soundscapes initiative, Jakub records and assesses the relationship between biophony, geophony, and anthropophony within his homeland’s acoustic environment.

In their conversation, Melissa and Jakub discuss a novel way of thinking about his field recording work: the notion that different recordings have flavors. For Jakub, this relates to the emotions he feels in the place where they are made - maybe a flavor of adventure (for example, in relation to soundscapes “tied to [an effortful] expedition”), or the flavor of being “the first person in a place for a very long time”. There’s even the flavor of preparation and analysis, drawing on “old descriptions of [a] place[,] [...] of settlements that once existed there” and grounded in everything from maps of topography, light pollution, and air traffic to Lidar-based terrain models. 

Jakub also describes a more primeval flavor - one that comes from respect for, or even fear of nature, and which “mix[es] [...] fascination and unease”. This sonic flavor reminds us that, for most of human history, natural environments were so much more unpredictable, stronger, and powerful than we were, whether in the form of forests, rivers, mountains, or swamps. Capturing that sensation tells us how “small [we] are compared to what surrounds [us]”.

They also delve into topics including:

• ‘Sonic nostalgia’: a notion prompted by the disparity between the soundscapes of Jakub’s childhood, spent in his mother’s picturesque home village, and those he experienced when returning to the same area as an adult. From a “quite simple and [...] even [...] old-fashioned” way of life that “harmonized with [the] forces of nature in a perfect way”, the “sounds of [the] river where [he] played with [his] cousins [and the] beautiful sounds of the hay fields” had been overtaken by quite different sounds generated from the sand extraction sites that the riverbanks had become, while the forests were filled with industrial noise
• The “hidden critical potential” to field recording, which means it “can be a declaration of [the recordist’s] worldview”, akin to a protest song. Jakub explains how a field recordist is able to provide commentary by “reveal[ing] what is in [a particular] soundscape [...], what's disappearing and how human activity shapes it” - in his case, mainly in relation to awareness of noise pollution, but also on broader issues like migration, pandemics, or women’s rights
• A traditionalist worldview - not politically, but one that embraces “a sensitivity to what's being lost” and an “uneas[iness] about the future”. For Jakub, that manifests as a “longing for sounds that are disappearing”, as well as “a quiet sense of anti-consumerism and anti-globalism”, given the way in which transport, industrialization, and tourism can be detrimental to biophony, geophony, and traditional folk sounds
• Field recording as an act of care for the soundscapes it preserves, which may encourage others to listen more closely to the world around them. But, also, the challenge of finding the time to listen to in the first place - even though slow, intentional deep listening can “sharpen [...] awareness [and] expand [...] [the] imaginations”: ideal responses to challenging times
• Species’ changing behaviors in the face of noise pollution - such as marsh frogs or midwife toads, which are increasingly difficult to hear, year by year; songbirds like blackbirds or nightingales changing the pitch of their calls; or whitetail eagles reacting nervously to loud disturbances
• The need for a healthy balance between natural sounds, human activity, and modern infrastructure - and the difficulty for enabling these elements to coexist, particularly in countries which, like Poland, are developing quickly, and where governments may consider “[...] noise [...] as a part of progress and development [rather] than pollution”. This despite noise being one of the most prevalent forms of pollution, second only to smoke
• The increase of sedatephobia - fear of silence - particularly among younger people, who, brought up as digital natives, with constant access to online content, can be made to feel anxious or stressed by quiet environments. A possible outcome of this “is the urge to dominate a space with noises, [...] [such as with the] engines of cars and motorcycles [...] tun[ed] [...] to sound even louder”. This speaks to the influence that education could have upon healthy sonic environments: schools could introduce eco-acoustic ecology, communities set up quiet paths in green areas, and, in the home, parents “teach [their] children to respect quiet places and be thoughtful about noise”
• Jakub’s experience of living with the neurological condition of hyperacusis, which means that particular noises, such as loud or sharp ones, cause long-lasting pain and discomfort in the ears. Yet, in spite of this being so clearly problematic for a sound recordist, Jakub chooses to be thankful, since it has made him “extremely sensitive to [...] everyday sounds” which he never previously gave any consideration to.

All this and much more, in a dense and fascinating conversation. You can find out more about Jakub’s work on his website. And, until next time, happy listening.

Melissa's words on the piece:

"A sensorial journey with some of the most poetic field recordings I have encountered. They are delicate, requiring a certain level of attention. The recordings combine depth, dynamics, and space in a beautifully staggering way, allowing the wandering ear to easily attune to the different soundscapes. From the Nordic solitude of a snowy forest to the sublime manifestation of our living planet of an erupting volcano in Vanuatu. The recordings are woven with music from Patrícia Wolf, Verónica Cerrotta and me; this mix is an expansive invitation to tune in to our natural world and a plea for us to love it and nurture it."

Playlist:

This episode, part two from Endless Fields 2025, features a further selection of interviews between Earth.fm curator Melissa Pons and her fellow artists-in-residence. You can listen to part one here.

One of the co-founders of the event, Stefano Arrigoni, spoke to Melissa alongside Cameron Randall.

Stefano is a sound artist and anaesthetist from Italy, who lives in Marseille, France. His practice explores how sound can shape consciousness and open spaces between the inner and the outer. For Stefano, field recording is a form of healing, attention, and surrender. In his compositions and improvisations, recorded sounds trace paths that question authorship and reveal what lies beyond the first layer of hearing. 

Cameron, a multidisciplinary artist, field recordist, and DJ, composes through an assemblage of field recordings, electro-acoustic sound, sampling, synthesis, AI models, and digital processing. Previous work has involved sculpture, algorithms, sound, moving image, text, and installation, while his monthly series Listening With is broadcasted on Resonance FM.

Together, Melissa, Stefano, and Cameron discuss:

• The origins of their interest in sound. Cameron’s arts background means he approaches the sonic world through a visual lens, while, despite being brought up in a family where music wasn’t a priority, one of Stefano’s earliest memories is of playing guitar with his father. He also describes himself having been a “sound-contemplator” from an early age
• How important it is, for those who wish to make music but don't have a musical background, to realize that if you “step back and [...] just listen quietly and [...] wait patiently”, inspiration will come. And to remember that an “unmusical mind” can even be beneficial, by “pull[ing] [...] work into a [...] different space”
• Whether engaging with sound requires more effort than the visual world does - or whether this engagement is “just different”, and simply requires a different kind of attunement
• The way that Stefano “find[s] sounds that call [to him]”, while Cameron “morph[s] and combin[es] sounds” to create a “quality that's partly in this world and partly in another”

• How negotiating one particular, secluded environment with a microphone, over an extended period, can increase the experience of intimacy with that environment, enhancing the listening experience 
• Whether listening in such an environment provides opportunities for imagining a better world, and to consider how creative practices can create outcomes that oppose the values of mainstream society
• How being “acutely” present in a natural environment can allow an appreciation of the “entanglement of species”, and of the “interwovenness” of the bodies of land and water which make up these spaces
• The way that time seems to “collapse” into a “continual flow” in such spaces - compared to the more structured interaction with time that most of us experience in day-to-day life
• The importance of remembering that “ecstasy [can] come [...] from very simple feelings like the warm breeze on your skin when you walk at night”
• How “liv[ing] in a crazy global situation [...], [means that] it's a very mixed feeling to be able to [...] just connect to [...] [things like the sound of a] grasshopper” - but that being in a natural space can also bring “a lot of those conversations to the fore”; taking the time to listen allows more mental clarity than the constant state of agitation within which many of us live. “By listening, we are moving peace energy. [...] It's [...] [a] political act” - so, “make your listening sacred”. 

Melissa also spoke to Anna Clock, who co-founded Endless Fields with Stefano. Anna’s work as an artist, composer, and musician centers ways of listening, and encompasses theater, film, radio, installation, text, and live music. They also find the time to play the cello and offer affordable, gender-neutral hairdressing in the queer community.

In their conversation, Anna talks about:

• How moving from London, England, to Ireland at young age and entering “a completely different aural environment” led them to start making recordings - something that initially felt distinct from their background in music, before they came to the realization that they were part of the same practice
• The importance of reciprocity when listening, including the way that music can allow one to connect with both oneself and the world
• The connection between field recording and deep listening - but also the reluctance, as someone with a cynical nature, to sound too New Age by talking about spirituality in a flippant way
• The idea that, “If you can't listen to yourself, then you can't listen to anyone [...] or anything else.” Plus, the importance of finding the “special zone” which enables you to “feel comfortable enough to give and receive”... But also the acknowledgement that, if you're never uncomfortable, you're never “reaching towards anything new”
• How being present in order to listen can be a disconcerting experience, since “it’s not what we're trained to reward ourselves for” in a world built around capitalistic productivity
• The beauty of “listening [rather than] fighting with time”: a valuable act in a world where “every action you take is a vote for a way of life”
• The experience of listening as part of a group of people - including how recordings made on a night walk while taking part in one of Pauline Oliveros’ sonic meditations (where the intention is to tread so softly that the feet become ears) captured not only the surroundings but the sound of people listening.

You can contact Stefano here, and follow Cameron and Anna.

And check back for upcoming episodes! These will feature conversations with Jakub Orzęcki, an acoustic ecologist and field recording artist who lives in Wrocław, Poland, and the Berlin-based sound recordist and electronic music composer Gina Lo.

This inaugural edition of Endless Fields, organized by Anna Clock and Stefano Arrigoni, was funded by the Department of Applied Social Sciences at the School of Science and Technology (FCT), NOVA University, Lisbon, Portugal, and co-organized by its participants. Local facilitation was by Raquel Castro - curator, producer, film director, and former president of the World Forum for Acoustic Ecology - and Ivo Louro, PhD Candidate in History, Philosophy and Heritage of Science and Technology (at FCT NOVA), and “occasional” sound artist. 

During the residency, which involved collective listening and recording, sound performances, jams, and an open day, Melissa conducted interviews with her fellow participants. These conversations form the basis of a new two-part episode of Earth.fm’s Wind Is the Original Radio podcast. 

This, the first part, features Ivo, Iddo Aharony, a composer of electronic and acoustic music and environmental and multimedia compositions, and Xavier Velastín Vicencio - self-described sound designer, composer, technologist, and whale lover.

Ivo Louro - who is studying the acoustemologies of Aeolian instruments, examining how they have been used not only to make music from the wind but also to monitor and forecast weather in both scientific and traditional craft settings - discusses:

• How his lifelong interest in environment, ecology, and science began in childhood, but that it was a university class on acoustic pollution, taken during his environmental engineering training, which opened a new world that linked sound and environment. Later, reading David Toop’s Haunted Weather: Music, Silence, and Memory prompted him to begin making field recordings and engaging with sound theory - starting with R. Murray Schafer’s The Soundscape: Our Sonic Environment and the Tuning of the World and, later, the work of ethnomusicologist Steven Feld, whose field research with the Kaluli people of Papua New Guinea’s Bosavi rainforest culminated in the 1991 album Voices of the Rainforest
• How his research accidentally led him to wind-driven Aeolian instruments. This includes resonators attached to the sails of traditional Portuguese windmills, which cause them to “hum and howl and [generate a] complex drone”, allowing millers to anticipate weather shifts while also producing a kind of music that accompanied their long, solitary hours. For Ivo, these sounds also resonate with personal memories and family histories, echoing rural soundscapes once common across the Portuguese hills
• Estúdio Yucca’s location being “almost like an oasis, [but also] very much just a tiny nook inside an area fraught with environmental issues and pressures”, citing the intensive farming and wastewater production associated with the touristification of the Algarve
• The connection between field recording and travel, and the environmental impacts of that travel, which has led Ivo to mainly make “field recording[s] around the city [...] [to] avoid going out into the country”
• How soundscape recordings can make “the world completely change” by engaging with unfamiliar species such as crabs: “put a small, sensitive microphone on the sand and [you’ll hear] a full world”.

Iddo Aharony is a creative musician and listener who continuously explores the myriad intersections of sound, environment, culture, and technology. His body of work spans a wide variety of instrumentations, media, and interdisciplinary collaborations, from a fully-staged opera to various experimental projects utilizing live electronics, created in collaboration with visual artists, theater directors, scientists, and other musicians. He currently lives in Colorado Springs and is Associate Professor of Music Technology at Colorado College. 

He talks about:

• His interest in the way that sounds from our environment can be engaged with in unexpected ways, or how they can surprise listeners
• The way gradually moving from not really listening to what was around him, to an increased engagement with it, “felt like a door that kept opening more and more”
• How living in an economic structure that is built around attracting people's attention means that listening to whatever environment in which you find yourself is a wonderful way to be in the world without thinking in terms of functionality or productivity: a small, quiet act of rebellion against that attention economy
• His fascination with sound since childhood, when, while playing guitar and piano, music was Iddo’s “most private place”, where he was able to most fully be himself. And how music’s emotional resonances acted as a gateway to emotions that he couldn’t otherwise express - leading to the realisation that “the whole world has that potential [for] emotional resonance”.

Xavier Velastín Vicencio is a performance and sound artist whose practice spans live art, sound design and composition for theatre, sound installations, sound for video games, sound poetry, algorithmic composition, and digital instrument creation. His work often focuses on utterance, agency, the environment, technology, and the physicality of sound. Xavier is a resident of the Pervasive Media Studios, Bristol, and is currently on a research fellowship with the British Library's Eccles Institute, in London, England. 

With Melissa, Xavier speaks about:

• How the ‘liveness’ and ‘presentness’ of the body and the voice “relate to [...] larger questions about bodily autonomy and agency”
• His obsession with whales and their songs, which began with his realization that the recordings we generally hear have either been edited to make them audible for us, chosen to fit our idea of how whale song ‘should’ sound (avoiding any sounds that are too uncomfortable or challenging), or overlaid with “plinky-plonky” New Age piano music. All of which led to his Edinburgh Festival Fringe show [whalesong]: “a sound play about the noises and voices in the sea [...] [and] a love song to cetaceans”, which was used whale song as an organizing structure
• His excitement about system design and how organic processes can be embodied within technological systems
• The pleasure of getting to spend time with other sound artists, as opposed to sound designers whose interests lean towards engineering and the results of sound design: “You know, I'm not that interested in plugins and equipment and [...] how many tracks your REAPER session has [...]; I'm interested in [...] effective moments.”

We hope that you enjoy this episode. If you’d like to connect with the participants, you can do so here: Iddo and Xavier. 

And keep an ear out for part two - coming soon!

In this edition of Earth.fm podcast Wind Is the Original Radio, curator Melissa Pons speaks to 

Serge Bulat, a multidisciplinary artist whose work - which spans and hybridizes music, exhibitions, immersive games, radio, field recording, and psychological installations - explores the edges of performance, sound, perception, and identity.

Serge is from a Moldovan town divided from Ukraine by a river, with family hailing from both worlds. For this reason, borders are “a prominent subject in [his] work”, which seeks to question topics around unity, differences and similarities, and the utopian aspiration of finding “ways to live in a borderless world”.

Earlier this year, he released Phonomundi: Selected Recordings of Heritage Sites and Traditions 2017-2024, an album which draws upon years of recording, sharing, and contributing to projects, causes, and stories close to his heart. Phonomundi is also about engaging with “our absolutely disastrous path away from respecting our ears and respecting our culture and respecting our environment”.

Against a backdrop of woozy compositions by Serge, featuring nature soundscape recordings, he and Melissa discuss the trials of having a “noisy” mind, which feels like “war in your head” and means that “it’s hard to stop the thinking process” - but which can also lead recordists to “forget about [them]self and [...] start thinking about communities, people that are affected, and [how] that [can be] such an ego drop”.

Serge also talks about how ‘now’ is illusory, and his “weird relationship with time”: “I guess it might be some form of synesthesia, because I feel time; I feel its thickness and I feel its qualities.” The flow of time is “one of the driving forces behind [him] doing what [he’s] doing”, while field recording can provide “the nowest now that there can ever be”. He describes how, after experiencing difficulties with conventional mediation, he managed to develop his own system of meditation around listening, where “time stops [...] [and] you find that serenity and that absolute calmness and, for me, this is when I stop the noise”.

As he says, “We're all pieces of [...] a bigger body and we're [...] made of the same substance. [...] I always struggle to put anything like that in words [...]. It's easier for me to put it in music. [...] This is what music and sound does [...] and words don't.”

Together, Serge and Melissa also address topics including:

• The relevance of creative work in the face of the climate catastrophe and alarming political developments across the world - including how music, as a precursor to language, can be “a shortcut [...] to somebody's mind, heart and soul”. While also acknowledging the necessity of “dig[ging] deeper [to] understand the issues [with which] we're living”
• Wanting to make work of significance despite “sonic pollution, [...] over-tourism, over-consumerism, weird politics that make zero sense when it comes to preserving [...] or nurturing stuff that matters and makes us us” - and especially in light of the fact that everything we know is at risk of “disappearing just by [the] pressing [of] one button”
• Learning to love silence. As Serge says, “We need to reset our hearing. [...] I feel like [silence] makes the ear function better”
• How it is possible to “feel and hear” bees’ moods from the frequencies of their buzzing, and how bee therapy (‘apitherapy’) - known since the time of Ancient Egypt - can improve anxiety, depression, and even respiratory conditions. “What bl[ows] my mind [about them]”, says Serge, is their “self-sufficiency, community, [and the way that they can] solv[e] a crisis [by] relying on each other”
• Serge’s experience of an immersive exhibition in Kraków, Into the Darkness, which replicates what it’s like to not be able to see, with blind guides providing insights about their lives, and the equivalence of this to animals replying on different senses than our own (such as spiders and vibrations, or snakes using infrared thermal radiation)
• The appeal of twilight, “when everything starts becoming blurry” and takes on the quality of a dream, and “the thrill of [darkness] and [the way that] [Serge’s] imagination sometimes takes [him to other] places”.

Listen to the whole interview for all this and much more (including the raw terror of Bob from Twin Peaks!).

Read more on the recent discoveries from the James Webb Telescope.

If you enjoyed this candid and wide-ranging conversation, you can follow Serge on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, SoundCloud, and Apple Music.

The latest installment of the Earth.fm podcast, Wind Is the Original Radio, finds curator Melissa Pons in conversation with sound recordist and expedition leader George Vlad. You can listen to and read George’s work elsewhere on the site - and you may already have heard recordings of his in high-profile projects such as Dune: Part Two and Mufasa: The Lion King, as well as various documentaries, TV series, podcasts, and audiobooks.

The love of George’s life, as a recordist and collector of sounds, is to be among wildlife sounds, trying to understand them, and getting to share them. Though he confesses to being initially fastidious about avoiding anthropophony, he explains that he has become more understanding and flexible, given how reductive it is to imagine that nature is separate from humans (and vice versa): “We are moving forward, whether we like it or not; progress happens: people need to travel and use power tools.” However, though he has become more open to recording people, he draws a line at combustion engines.

He also shares about his journey from being a sound designer, when he originally saw field recordings as purely “tools or assets”, with no appreciation for the ecosystems they originated from. However, informed by his experience of growing up in the Romanian countryside - which taught him the value of loving nature and of living with it rather than trying to control it - he subsequently came to appreciate and take enjoyment from their beauty.

Additional topics addressed during the episode include:

• The “heavy question” of decolonising sound recording and working ethically as a recordist outside of one’s home culture. And, how working respectfully with locals can provide information that, as an outsider, he wouldn’t otherwise be privy to - but also the importance of choosing what to share, considering the importance of certain areas to Indigenous peoples
• “Being careful, being mindful, trying not to create tension and problems; this is just being a human, being a nice person, having common sense - it's not just about sound recording.” Where some recordists cause damage, ignore local taboos, or go chasing after animals, George has learned to be more mindful, preferring to work with passive-recording drop-rigs, which are not only easier for him, but less disruptive for wildlife
• Fellow recordists who see going back to camp and having a cup of tea as ‘cheating’ and consider suffering to add value to the work. While George has taken part in extreme expeditions (for example, in Sumatra and Gabon), “It was tough; I got a bunch of diseases, and it was painful, and I had to come back and spend two months taking antibiotics and trying to get better - but that didn't make the sound recordings better.” Alternatively, sometimes you're in air-conditioned lodges and being driven around (where it's unsafe to walk) - but that this is equally valid. Being attracted to the 'extremeness' of the experiences is ultimately only a way of making everything about yourself, and “that's just focusing on the wrong aspect; the soundscapes and the sound recordings are more valuable than the effort you put in, or the leeches that suck your blood”
• Things that George is afraid of in the field - which turns out to not be a lot, something he puts down to being brought up around cats, which can transmit Toxoplasma gondii to humans: a parasitic infection which reduces fear responses and increases risk-taking. However, he does fear losing his kit on a job
• Memorable field-recording experiences, including “sleeping on the edge of an active volcano in Ethiopia, without having taken any precautions” against the silica suspended in its gaseous emissions, which can cut up the lungs like broken glass… On the advise of a geologist who turned out not to have any experience of volcanoes
• How to incorporate study and research into a busy practice - not a problem when you “find it hard not to read”, and when research fuels excitement about new destinations. Also: recommendations of books for burgeoning recordists - not just ones on the subject of field recording itself, but useful adjacent ones, like learning to drive off-road, climb trees, or take up photography
• How to support conservation - not only in the form of international NGOs like WWF, but also tiny three-person initiatives where donations more appreciably go further (as long as you check that they’re doing what they say they’re doing!). Plus, training others in sound recording, who can potentially continue to record in their local environments when itinerant recordists have moved on 
• What George would like to see in the future of sound recording - not just for sound recordists to be properly compensated, but for this work to become established as an valued art form in its own right, with more courses, teachers, and the corresponding improvement in people’s ability to listen and pay attention to the world around them.

Plus! The importance of making jam, playing video games, and reading Jules Verne.

George would be delighted if you’d like to engage with his work, so feel free to follow him on his YouTube channel.

This latest episode of Earth.fm’s Wind Is the Original Radio podcast finds site curator Melissa Pons in conversation with Peruvian sound artist and ‘resilient designer’ Nahun Saldaña. In his work, Nahun explores the intersections between soundscapes and sound ecology, especially in relation to climate change and speculative sound future.

Together, they discuss:

• The possibility of using soundscapes to drive the awareness that we all depend on the natural world - and even of using them to make companies prioritise caring for the planet rather than solely the pursuit of profit. 
• The ludicrousness of carbon credits (“Okay, you contaminate, but you pay for the compensation”), but the way that a similar model of mitigation could be applied to noisy manufacturers.
• The impact of individualism on people’s awareness (or lack thereof) of the sounds that they make and how those sounds may impact neighbours or the broader community around them
• How, in urban spaces, silence has become a new kind of luxury - one denied to people living in lower-income areas
• A tendency, within the nature-sound-recording community, to fetishise tragedies in the natural world by recording “the sounds of extinction” or the last examples of particular species, despite this not curtailing those tragedies. Is there an argument for focusing, instead, on “stories of regeneration and flourishing”?
• Whether sound technology can be harmful, and, if so, is it “more important to teach the kids to listen”? Nahun describes an instructive visit to a small jungle town where younger generations no longer have the ability to recognise specific sounds, such as the sounds of honey-producing bees - meaning that resources are lost as older members of the community pass away.
• The power of deep listening and the notion of “politicians with a capacity for [...] deep listening”, and what groundbreaking policies might emerge from such a (sadly improbable) possibility.
• Nahun's one of many projects Escuchadores: a physical structure installed in sound conservation areas conceptualized exclusively to listen and stay in the moment.

We hope that you enjoy this episode, including Nahun’s irresistible exuberance and enthusiasm! You can follow him on Instagram, and check out the work - writing, photography, video, sound art, and ambient music - on his (Spanish-language) website.

Tracklist:

01:58 Midnight Forest Frogs - Andy Martin

09:01 Western Capercaillie Makes Vocalizations in Early Spring - Andrus Kannel

12:49 Early Spring Thunderstorm in Beech Forest - Ivo Vicic

25:57 Hippopotamoes Preparing for the Night - Sounding Wild

39:36 Dawn Chorus is Saroluk - Enis Çakar

44:00 RDC Nightwalk in Rainforest - Owl - Gina Lo

47:02 Early Autumn Bushland Dawn near the Coorong - Khristos Nizamis

52:56 Tiny Little River - Verónica Cerrotta

56:24 Between Tree Branches - Melissa Pons

57:22: Here in There - Melissa Pons

You can listen to all of these soundscapes on our free mobile app at https://Earth.FM available for iOS and Android.

Earth.fm’s Wind Is the Original Radio podcast is pleased to share the second part of curator Melissa Pons’ conversation with sound designer and field recordist Andy Martin. (You can find part one here.)

Here, in another thought-provoking instalment, Andy shares his thoughts about deep listening, questioning (in part because of the varied ways in which it is defined) the difference from just… listening.

In the field, Andy “describe[s] [him]self as a witness”, of anything from “the trickle of water to hummingbirds which are out to kill each other” - but he refutes the idea of there being any “inherent meaning in a soundscape; it just is; it just exists”. Where deep listening often aspires to finding meaning or making a connection - “an intentional beauty or a message within the soundscape” - he asserts his conviction that there are no such intentions, beyond those of individual wildlife. 

“I can listen in wonder and awe”, but “there's nothing there that is a meaningful, special interaction for me; it is just life existing. If we're looking for a deeper connection, a deep meaning within the soundscape [...] we're missing the reality of what's there, and we're trying to put our own feelings, our own belief systems onto that reality - and that's not my job. [...] My job is to listen and bring forth.” What Andy sees as people’s misinterpretations of the natural world overriding the reality means that, “The moment I hear someone describe a dawn chorus as an outpouring of joy, they've lost me. Because that's what it sounds like to us - but that's not necessarily what it is.”

Further topics discussed in this episode include:

• The idea that, by entering other beings’ habitats, uninvited, recordists make themselves into “voyeur[s]”: “To imagine that I am not making a disruption when I go into that space [...] I think is very foolish” - one of the benefits of rolling out hundreds of metres of mic cables to listen while recording (another being the avoidance of self-noise: “I sniffle, I cough, I shuffle - I make a lot of noise”)
• The difference between American robins’ dawn and dusk calls and whinnies
• The close evolutionary relationship between birds, dinosaurs, and crocodilians - plus, a hair-raising story of being alone in a Louisiana swamp, hearing alligators booming in the twilight and legging it for his car. (Really, who can blame him?)
• Hearing soundscapes in those fog-shrouded swamps of the Atchafalaya Basin change over course of a year and noting the different times at which different species of frogs and insects sing, and the different frequencies in which they do so: Bernie Krause's acoustic niche theory in action
• The potential selfishness of making nature recordings, and whether it's necessary to assign a 'higher cause' to justify making doing so in ways that may exoticize the environments in which they are made 
• Acknowledging the unlikeliness “that someone'll hear [his] recordings and dedicate themselves to some sort of ecological practice”... but also acknowledging the value of influencing people on a smaller scale - including himself. Though Andy states that he makes recordings for the enjoyment of hearing the more-than-human beings’ comings and goings, he also notes that listening to them has changed his own behaviour to the extent of affecting how he brought up his daughter
• The privilege of being involved in the Giving Contest organised with George Vlad and Thomas Rex Beverly: a call for donations for environmental causes, with nature sound recording bundles as prizes
• The way that spaces like the Amazon rainforest, which we think of as untouched wilderness, were affected by Indigenous, pre-colonial farming and water management: places where humans have in fact influenced ecosystems for thousands of years. More modern examples include the American bullfrogs which are considered ubiquitous, but which were limited to the eastern half of North America before being bred as a cheap protein source during the Gold Rush, and ultimately released into the wild
• The possibility of humanity having positive impacts on the natural world - even if making that change may be a long time coming.

We hope that you enjoy this episode. If you’d like to connect with Andy, you can do so on LinkedIn and Instagram and listen to various recordings and other interviews here.

The insightful and granular conversation explored the following topics:

• Andy’s relationship with sound throughout his life and career, and what paths led to him dedicating himself to nature field recordings - taking in childhood illness, a love of the Star Wars score, involuntary mimicking of the sounds around him, and a desire for escape 
• Flirtations with piano, violin, and saxophone, which led to music school - where Andy experienced a shift from sound being something he played and listened to actively thinking about it as something with the power to affect the world via feelings and emotions
• Stumbling from film sound design into video games - different ways of using sound to tell a story 
• How being a stay-at-home father for three years allowed him to experiencing the world via his young daughter's curiosity, and how his desire to learn about the place of sound grew alongside his daughter
• Starting to record wildlife for computer games, but initially seeing these sounds as “assets”
• ‘Quietness’ and ‘silence’ and what people really mean when they search for places that offer these things. And what sites without industrial noise, inhabited by more-than-human life, have brought to Andy
• A nature field recordist's identity and its contradictions in a capitalistic system and in the context of ‘content creation’.
• How ADHD feels to Andy, and how his experience of the disorder affects his practice and his life - maybe chaotically, maybe beautifully
• Also: crows!

Listen out for part two of the conversation, which will be released soon!

Also, below are all of the references mentioned during this episode:

• Bernie Krause's acoustic niche hypothesis: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/269278107_The_Niche_Hypothesis_A_virtual_symphony_of_animal_sounds_the_origins_of_musical_expression_and_the_health_of_habitats
• Bernie Krause's book, The Great Animal Orchestra: https://eshop.fondationcartier.com/en/products/bernie-krause-and-united-visual-artists-the-great-animal-orchestra 
• Martyn Stewart: https://www.thelisteningplanet.com/alifeinsoundpodcast 
• Gordon Hempton's One Square Inch of Silence: https://onesquareinch.org/ 
• Andy’s official website: https://soundeziner.com/ 
• Andy's SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/soundeziner 

And you can connect with Andy on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/andymartinnaturesound/ and Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andymartinnaturesound/.

We’re talking about some aspects of sound as heritage and memory as well as its cultural value in which Chris conceptualizes the notion of sonic time capsule, how we humans relate to sound in different contexts and throughout time, and we also talk about his more recent project in the Isle Royale National Park in Michigan, where Chris spent almost two weeks recording while traversing the island by foot.

Please find below all the references mentioned during our conversation:

Video games composers: Yasunori Mitsuda and Nobuo Uematsu (the Chrono Cross and Final Fantasy series)

Steven Feld - Voices From the Rainforest; the Kaluli people

UNESCO heritage designations: https://www.unesco.org/en/lists-designations

The Greek practice of the memory palace: https://artofmemory.com/blog/how-to-build-a-memory-palace/

Antônio Bispo dos Santos: https://futuress.org/community/antonio/

The Tonebenders Podcast episode with Chris: https://tonebenderspodcast.com/277-field-recording-for-the-national-parks-service-with-chris-trevino/

Isle Royale NP: https://www.nps.gov/isro/index.htm

Chris Treviño SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/chrisatrevino

Listen to the full recording of ‘Old Man and Grandson Watch Trains’: https://soundcloud.com/chrisatrevino/old-man-and-grandson-watch-trains

Chris’ official website: https://www.chrisatrevino.com/Connect with Chris on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisatrevino and on X https://x.com/ChrisATrevino

Jo is a field recordist, sound designer, and audio producer who focuses on environmental and ecological projects. Together, we discuss Jo's path between environment and sound;, what listening - whether to anthropogenic sounds or predominantly natural ones - can potentially reveal; the power of novelty and curiosity in sound; rewilded soundscapes; graveyards; and more.

It isn’t necessary to experience pristine natural environments in order to fulfil our potential for connecting with other living beings, whatever they may be, and we might find small patches of land near us which are very special.

In addition, Jo and Cathy's podcast, - Nature Tripping - https://www.jokennedysound.com/naturetripping -, is wholeheartedly recommended, as is the article mentioned in the episode: ‘"Initiating Ecological Change Through Sound Art – a Review and Short Manifesto" - https://www.jokennedysound.com/blog/initiating-ecological-change-through-sound-art.

And see what the Yorkshire Sound Women Network is all about and how you can get involved - https://yorkshiresoundwomen.com/

Thank you, Jo, for the wonderful conversation!

This episode is a fun conversation - both uncanny and down-to-earth - about listening to underwater sounds and the fascinating experience of recording them. Plus, collaborating to create music from his field recordings and some necessary gear talk.

David’s work is informed by his experience as a bassist, composer, and music technician, and by the process of cooperation with other musicians. He shares about how these processes go for some of his latest projects, and about the value of gathering people to make music.Learn more about David and his work on his website, https://daviddelahaye.co.uk/, and consider supporting him on bandcamp: https://daviddelahaye.bandcamp.com/.

Recorded by Marc Anderson at the Gunung Halimun National Park, Java, Indonesia

This amplification serves as a delicacy to my ears, bringing closer to my perception many tiny movements, many of which are hair-raising. Maybe it's merely the darkness operating its dominating power over us or perhaps it's this intriguing dance between near-silence and the appearance of nocturnal creatures - both animals and rocks, for the latter feel alive on their own.

The easily heard species in this recording are the tawny owl (Strix aluco) and the Griffon Vulture (Gyps fulvus).

This is a specially quiet recording, so an equally quiet listening is recommended.

Recorded by Melissa Pons in Spain.

Recorded by Sounding Wild in Outamba Kilimi NP, Sierra Leone

Recorded by Marc Anderson in Taman Negara, Malasya

This region of Washington is the ancestral lands of the Stillaguamish People.

Recorded by Nick McMahan, Washington, USA

One of those birds is the Yellow-breasted Chat, a laconic-yet-vociferous songbird with a voice both louder and deeper than belies its small size. One of the more enigmatic songbirds of North America, the Yellow-breasted Chat is widespread across the continent but rarely found in dense numbers. It skulks about in dense riparian thickets and other shrubby habitats, nesting deep within and singing from a barely-exposed perch. More often heard than seen in late Spring and early Summer, when males produce long soliloquies in search for a mate (or sometimes two), they have a brief but explosively creative burst of song every year, only to remain silent for the rest of it.

Recorded on Summer Solstice, 2024, this particular singer was a surprise. I had been hiking around one of my favorite valley campgrounds, enjoying the recent explosion of late-Spring songbirds, when I noticed a thicket that was particularly favored by local Lazuli Buntings. Nice Bunting recordings being a goal of this trip, I quickly set up a lightweight hiking recorder with a pair of small mics to leave overnight in hopes that Buntings could have time to sing as they saw fit.

Imagine my surprise when listening back to the recordings and found more than an hours’ worth of a Yellow-breasted Chat singing close by, as if I’d set these microphones up just for him!

Our Chat wakes up early in Nautical Twilight with a burst of whistles to rattle the neighborhood. After a brief rest, he begins his soliloquy of repeated grunts, rattles, beeps, and whistles. Soon, less than a minute later, the first distant songs of the next Chat over can be heard in the background. They space themselves out along the riparian border of Sinlahekin Creek just close enough to still be heard, far enough away to give each other space. While most birds sleep in and wait for more light, including Robins and Blackbirds, Nautical Twilight is their moment to sing.

For most of the next two hours this little bird will sing from the same perch, only occasionally shifting directions as if he wants to be sure everyone has an equal chance to hear his voice. His voice grows louder and softer as he turns toward or away from the microphones. He’s so close the early reflections off the leaves of the thicket scatter his voice back to us loud and clear even when he faces away. With almost mechanical precision he continues his steady chanting song.

As other birds awaken with the slowly breaking mountain dawn, the air fills with songs loud and soft behind — but never interfering with — the Chat. Soon there are cawing Crows, Black-capped Chickadees sweetly calling, “Phoee-be”, and Lazuli Buntings working out their unique and recently “crystalized” songs. A Veery sounds like a mournful flute the next hedge over. A Ruffed Grouse beats its wings with an almost too-low-to-hear “flah-thump”. Yellow Warblers, Red-eyed Vireos, Common Yellowthroats, and Spotted Towhees circle the neighborhood, calling from one tree, singing from another, never satisfied, at least not until Sunrise when everyone will disperse to live out their day foraging for meals and nesting material. Filling out the soundscape are Cedar Waxwings, Olive-sided Flycatchers, Pied-billed Grebes, Pine Siskins, rowdy gangs of teenaged Red-winged Blackbirds, and more.

After Sunrise the avian community slowly disperses. The Dawn Chorus is no more, replaced in whole by daily activities. Song continues as part of that organizing behavior, but the Dawn pronouncements are over after nearly 2 hours of upwelling joy. Our chat slowly moves farther and farther from his perch, allowing daring Buntings and Towhees the chance to take over the job of songmeister. If we were to keep listening throughout the day, we’d hear the Yellow Chat come and go, ensuring his perch and his home remain his and his alone. At night he will reverse the process, singing from Sunset to Astronomical Twilight, no so much fading away but just stopping when it’s time to fall asleep, to gain back some of that spent energy to do it all again tomorrow.

Recorded by Andy Martin in Okanogan High Country, USA

It's one of the quietest places I know, allowing an equally quiet observer to listen to all the layers and make up a sonorous composition of this place weaving it in one's imagination.

These are the most prevalent bird species one can hear in this recording:

Common Nightingale (Luscinia megarhynchos), Common Quail (Coturnix coturnix), Golden Oriole (Oriolus oriolus), Eurasian Collared Dove (Streptopelia decaocto), Eurasian Hoopoe (Upupidae), Corn Bunting (Emberiza calandra), Little Owl (Athene noctua).

The Montado is an unique system, existing only in the Iberian Peninsula although slightly different from the Dehesa, in Spain. As far as we know, human intervention has started during the neolithic period, favouring certain trees for their high yielding fruits that feed the animals, and others for their cork.

Despite such intricate connection and millennial relationship, the Montado is in decline; this system is incredibly fragile and faces a number of grave threats today, from diseases that affect trees and wild rabbits to overgrazing, to privatization of enormous areas of land for mono-crop exploitation, leaving the soil impoverished and triggering the increase of chemical use, which will then infiltrate underground.

Thus it is imperative and urgent to take care of this emblematic land.

Recorded by Sounding Wild in the Bijagos Archipelago, Guinea-Bissau

Recording by Marc Anderson at the Mummel Gulf National Park, NSW, Australia

These sounds were recorded on the ancestral land of the Northern Paiute people.

Exceptionally low-noise microphones in various arrays capture the delicate sounds of the environment. If you would like to know more please get in touch.

Recorded in the Basque Hills, Oregon, USA by Nick McMahan

While this howling is their most well-known vocal characteristic, I’m rather fond of the popping and grunting that warms up to the howl and pads the time in between. It’s relatively quiet, and is most noticeable only when near the vocalizing howler. You can hear it throughout their first round of howling the beginning.

After speaking with other recordists, I know I am far from alone as someone who loves their sound, but I may be one of the few that enjoys waking up to their calls. Every morning I heard this nearby was a morning I walked to breakfast with a big silly grin on my face.

Neotropic birds come and go throughout the recording, but one persistent voice was the Yellow-throated Toucan, with a rhythmic, bouncing song that seems to carry on forever. There is at least one singing for most of this recording, and later, after the this first hour, a pair begin a duet. Also coming and going are raucous and noisy Scarlet Macaws and Red-lored Parrots, a lone Red-eyed Tree Frog, a visiting Little Tinamou, and more. I’m out of my depth when it comes to identifying neotropical birds, so I’ll let rest of the ecosystem speak for itself.

Recorded by Andy Martin at Parque Nacional Corcovado, Costa Rica

In addition to the most audible and easily identifiable species, we can also hear the cuckoo here and there. Other species listed: Golden Oriole (Oriolus oriolus), Red-backed Shrike (Lanius collurio), Common BlackBird (Turdus Merula), Common Nightingale (Luscinia megarhynchos), Common Wood Pigeon (Columba palumbus), Common Quail (Coturnix coturnix).

Recorded by Melissa Pons, in Portugal

Recorded by Marc Anderson at Parque Nacional Sierra de las Nieves, Spain

Recorded by Nick McMahan in the Washington River

Recording by Sounding Wild at the Outamba-Kilimi National Park, Sierra Leone

There’s so much life in a chorus, and it’s not only insects. Frogs occasionally beep. Bats flutter by. The occasional leaf drops from the canopy. This is my happy place.

Recorded on the last night of a stay in a private lodge on Costa Rica’s Osa Peninsula, near Parque Nacional Corcovado.

Recording by Andy Martin at the Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica

Our guide suggested visiting the lesser-traveled Kiganga trail. True to his word, as soon as we left the small town adjacent to the forest, we were greeted by the quiet tranquility of the forest. The only sounds were the distant sound of Zigi River flowing through the forest and the high-pitched calls of cicadas in the canopy above. We stopped to listen for a while before choosing a tree to set up the recorder. At dusk, the loud cicadas gave way to the more nocturnal animals—crickets, bats, and hyraxes. The hyrax’s call occasionally rose above the crickets, echoing through the forest all night! 

Field recording by Martha Mutiso in Tanzania

Although the birdsong is more sparse than earlier in the day, many birds are active and can be heard calling and moving about in the the surrounding forest.

Recorded by Marc Anderson

LINI is an NGO dedicated to community development through sustainable fisheries in north Bali, Indonesia. Their work includes aquaculture to mitigate illegal fishing for the aquarium trade, reef restoration and capacity building in local communities to nurture sustainable livelihood.

This recording was made with a pair of aquarians into a Zoom H4N, secured in a waterproof barrel on a raft tied to a buoy above the most mature reef restoration area. Amongst the sound of the shrimp, you can hear various fish chatting, grunting and farting – message me if you know who the mermaid is.

Recording by Alice Eldridge

During the whole time I spent in this region, that was on my mind. It was psychologically difficult and the rocky and dry shrubs didn’t offer much solace. I think about the attempts of land domination and how a harmonious and reciprocal  relationship could reflect on the landscape.

This recording invites us to listen with an open mind.

The main species on this recording are: Golden Oriole (Oriolus oriolus), Red-backed Shrike (Lanius collurio), Common Blackbird (Turdus Merula), Common Nightingale (Luscinia megarhynchos), Common Wood Pigeon (Columba palumbus), Common Quail (Coturnix coturnix).

Recorded by Melissa Pons in Portugal

This episode is a very special edition - a replay of our Deep Listening Party on Earth day in YouTube.

This version is a 2 hour edit and you can follow the timestamps below. To listen to the recordings in their full length visit our page at https://earth.fm

A big heartfelt thank you to all who sent their messages, named their favourite recordings and to all that contribute with their wonderful sounds.

About 400 meters away from the recorder there is a big Fig Tree. It is a very, very big tree and every time its big heavy leaves fall,  you can feel the sound they make when they touch the ground.

The sounds of nocturnal insects create a homogeneous texture that highlights the stillness of the night.

Silently a horse appears grazing.

Recorded in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, by Verónica Cerrotta

Recorded by Kelly Rafuse, in California, USA

Recorded by Marc Anderson, in Kullen, Sweden

Recorded by Jan Brelih in Kočevski Rog, Slovenia

The lake is large and shallow when full, but only lasts a couple months in spring before drying up entirely. It’s surrounded by coniferous forest of Ponderosa Pine, Lodgepole Pine, and White Fir. At the time I made this recording there were only a few small pools of water left. I arrived late in the morning and the sky was blue and sunny above, but clouds were beginning to build all around. I set up the microphone in the forest not far from the lake under a dense bunch of young White Fir trees which provided shelter from rain and wind when the storms eventually passed overhead. The clouds continued to build until the first rumbles of thunder were heard in the distance. The chirping calls of Mountain Chickadees and Dark-eyed Juncos are heard along with other birds, and frogs can be heard in the distance in the remaining pools of the fast drying lake. As the storms moved closer, gentle rain began to fall and a light breeze blew through the trees above. The thunder became increasingly loud and powerful until it passed directly overhead.

Recording by Kelly Rafuse

Recording by Nick McMahan

I stationed my equipment beside a small stream, the sound of which, to me, symbolized the larger ecological processes taking place over centuries in the Western Ghats, to create a soundscape which could become a starting point for discussing Vattakanal, as per the hypothesis I am trying to explore through this project. At a personal level, I will remember this flowing water as the sound of sunrise in a tropical forest in the Western Ghats, layered with the sounds of birds, the occasional howling of Nilgiri langurs, and the distant barks of dogs which had followed me along the trail.

This excerpt is from the article Soundscapes of Lesser Nature, by Mustard Lake, a grantee of our field recording grant program.

We talk about the dynamics of this impressive journey, how technology led Axel to nature and out of the studio, his crazy blindfolded experiment in the streets of London, our general will to encounter "exotic" animals and how that can deafen us to the wonders right outside our window.

Learn about Axel and Ario's project on the Sounding Wild page and connect with them on Instagram and Twitter. You can listen to some of their recordings on earth.fm.

Episode's references:

Virtual Barbershop (listen with headphones)

Book Becoming Wild: How Animals Learn Who They Are, by Carl Safina

Field recording work: Songs of the Humpback Whale: Dr. Roger Payne

If you have been enjoying this season of Artist Talks reach out to us, maybe leave a comment where you listen to the podcast.

Until next time!

Recorded by Marc Anderson in the Huai Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuary, Thailand

Today we have a super informative and fun conversation with Rüdiger Ortiz-Álvarez, a biologist and film-maker with a PhD in Ecology. In 2019 he became an National Geographic Explorer and made the incredible documentary Ecotone, which we'll be talking about in this interview.

We discuss human disconnection with nature, ancient ecosystems, animal and human languages and how they possibly intersect in a given geography. We'll also get to know the story of how Rüdiger fell in love with sound which shifted his life.

You can connect with Rüdiger on his Twitter and Instagram, as well as finding more about his grant with National Geographic here.

Don't forget to check his recordings in our website on his artist profile.

Field recording work: Songs of the Humpback Whale: Dr. Roger Payne

Books mentioned: The Great Animal Orchestra: Bernie Krause

Musical artists mentioned: Stura with the album Llangres and Gregorio Paniagua with Batiscafo

Today we have a wonderful conversation with award winning sound artist Félix Blume, who has a variety of works in many distinct regions of the world, marked mainly through his collaborative process.

We talk about forms of listening, sound authorship, the power of sound to inquire and understand and working with children.

You can find the rich work of Félix in his website: https://felixblume.com/ and in his vimeo: https://vimeo.com/felixblume

Books mentioned:

The Falling Sky - Davi Kopenawa Yanomami with Bruce Albert

R. Murray Schafer - The Tuning of the World

Juliette Volcler - L'orchestration du quotidien - Design sonore et écoute au 21e siècle

Artists mentioned:

Chris Watson, Gordon Hempton, Bernie Krause

Recorded by Nícolas Gutierrez García in Resguardos Indígenas de Wacoyo, Meta, Colombia

Please check Chris blog containing not only journal entries from her trips as well as equipment and techniques advice.

Episode's references:

Field Recordist Lang Elliott

Book What the Robin Knows, by Jon Young

Our guest today is Seán Ronayne, an ornithologist and zoologist with a mission to record all the bird species in Ireland and to inspire change through his work and the fascination he nurtures by animal behaviour and outdoors. One very fascinating topic Seán shares about is how we can listen to the birds' stories if we pay attention to their mimicry. So prepare yourself as we're going to listen to some incredible bird vocalisations on this episode.

As always, we also talk about being in nature and wander in nature at night... alone but holding a parabola.

Seán's website Irish Wildlife Sounds

Seán's SoundCloud and Twitter

Listen to Seán's recordings on earth.fm

Watch ‘My mission is to record all of the bird species in Ireland’, a piece for the Irish Times, by Kathleen Harris.

References talked about in this episode:

The Great Animal Orchestra: Bernie Krause

Jay mimicry of a cat on Xeno-Canto: XC585280; recording by Adrianna Muszyńska

In this episode, our guest Darcy Spidle, also working under the name chik white, talks with Melissa about his connection to the landscape where he lives in Nova Scotia, dreams and his unique way of approaching field recording, parallel in a way to his musical explorations and performances as well as their specific differences. This is very much a conversation on creativity and the inner and outer worlds.

Darcy is a jaw harpist, screenwriter, actor and - of course - a field recordist. His works, which you can listen on his bandcamp page, are distinguishable intense with a strong aesthetic sense.

As a staple in this series, we talk about being in nature, deep listening and being alone in the dark outside.

Find out more about Darcy on his website.

Episode’s references:

Darcy's essay Trauma of My Mouth

Chris Watson: Stepping into the Dark

Roger Payne: Songs of the Humpback Whale

Lawrence English: Field Recordings from the Zone

Hildegard Westerkamp - Kits Beach

In this episode, Chris Hails talks about his multi-faceted career as an ecologist and zoologist in Malaysia, an environmental advisor in Singapore and Conservationist in Switzerland. Nature field recording has been a practice for Chris since tape recorder days. He has a PhD in bird ecology, and his professional activities have led him to research, teach and advise, with the efforts of saving the environment.

We discuss why there is so much disconnection between people and Nature, ways to bridge this gap and be conscious about our own consumer patterns and the connection to politics.

As a staple in this series, we talk about being in nature, deep listening and being alone in the dark outside.

Find out more about Chris on his website.

Episode’s references:

Chris' book Birds of Singapore

Tools for species ID:

Cornell University Bird NET

Merlin App

Xeno-Canto

Chris' Website Wild Echoes

The Sound Approach

Literature and films mentioned:

The Singing Life of Birds. The Art and Science of Listening to Birds by Donald Kroodsma

Memoirs of a Birdman by Ludwig Koch

Wild Soundscapes: Discovering the Voice of the Natural World and The Great Animal Orchestra: Finding the Origins of Music in the World's Wild Places by Bernie Krause

The Singing Planet, by Liz McKenzie

In this episode, Mélia Roger discusses how her approach to sound has changed; intimacy and empathy through sound;, and the context of politics and ecosocial conflicts in which sound and listening exists.

"Her work explores the sonic poetics of the landscape, through field recordings and active listening performances. Exploring human non-humans relations, she tries to inspire ecological change with environmental and empathic listening. She believes in the importance of participatory projects in order to share knowledge and personal experiences through sound." (from Portfolio - Selected Works, 2016-2021).

"Mélia Roger is a sound designer for film and art installation. She has a classical music background and owns a Master[’s] Degree in sound engineering (ENS Louis-Lumière, Paris, France). She spent her last year of Master in the Transdisciplinary Studies Program at ZHdK (Zurich University of the Arts, Switzerland), where she developed an artistic approach of sound, working with voice and field recordings. She is now living between Paris and Zurich, working for post-production film and her own artistic works."

Find out more about Mélia on her website.

Episode's references:

Donna J. Haraway - Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene

Environmental philosopher Vinciane Despret

Karen Barad -: “On Touching the Stranger Within – The Alterity That Therefore I Am”

Field recordist Marc Namblard

Philosopher Timothy Morton

Glenn Albrecht - Environment Change, Distress & Human Emotion Solastalgia

Bernie Krause - The Great Animal Orchestra exhibition

Solastalgie podcast [French language]

Land Body Ecologies podcast

Field Recordist and Sound Artist Félix Blume

Little Tobago, a minuscule jewel adrift off Tobago’s northeastern shores, a realm within the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. A realm of seclusion, where the only passage is by sea, where human comforts relent, surrendering to the unspoiled canvas of the night sky, adorned by the celestial dance of the Milky Way.

This sacred isle cradles a dry forest, a sanctuary for seabirds—Red-billed Tropicbirds, Audubon’s Shearwaters, Brown Boobies, Brown Noddies, Sooty and Bridled Terns—all gracing the island as custodians of the heavens. White-tailed Tropicbirds, a rare sight nesting among the rocks, weaving their tales into the tapestry of this mystical land.

Stepping ashore, one is transported to a Jurassic kingdom. The dry forest, a verdant abode for diverse songbirds and near-passerines, like the Trinidad Mot-Mot wielding anvils to conquer beetle shells, while shearwaters echo their cackling calls in the distance.

The saga unfolds as the Tropicbirds, pelagic wanderers of the azure expanse, commence their aerial ballet. At 2:30 pm, a celestial rendezvous at the cliff’s edge, where winds sculpt destiny. In elegant circles, they harness the invisible currents, orchestrating a grand descent into the embrace of shrubs below.

Yet, should the first dance falter, a daring plunge off the cliff, a daring encore to perfect their art. Enter the Frigatebird, the ocean’s marauder, soaring through the mid-air theater. Aware that Tropicbirds, satiated after a day of feasting, carry the ocean’s bounty, these aerial pirates seize their opportunity. Mid-flight, a violent shake coerces regurgitation, and the Frigatebirds seize the harvest in a daring mid-air ballet.

As the clock ticks towards 4 pm, the winds subside, and the avian performers retire to their roosts, leaving but a fleeting window to capture their symphony. In this ephemeral dance, the Red-billed Tropicbirds emerge as the maestros, rendering their enchanting melodies, making them the most bewitching notes I have ever endeavored to record.

Recorded by Giselle Ragoonanan Little Tobago, Trinidad and Tobago

Recoded by Jan Brelih, in Bulgaria

This year's migration brought a rich mix of migratory and resident bird songs. As day broke, the beautiful savanna was filled with the songs of visiting Nightingales, Warblers, and Orioles, often trying to sing louder than the resident Emerald-spotted Wood Doves, Boubous, Guineafowls, and Francolins. At times, their songs blended into one of the most spectacular dawn choruses I've ever heard. Avian migration is one of the greatest natural spectacles in the world, and it was amazing to record a small part of this sound phenomena in my country. 

This recording is highly dynamic and therefore we ask the listener caution with listening volumes, especially if using headphones.

Recorded by Martha Mutiso in Tsavo West National Park, Kenya 

Recorded by Verónica Cerrotta in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

That evening myself and Alba wandered back down the hill to lower ground where we found ourselves in a National Park, surrounded by lush forest with abundant sources of running water. This was important as I always love to combine dawn choruses with gentle streams – for me this is a dreamy combination and always lulls me to sleep when I am having trouble nodding off.

I checked the weather forecast and saw that there were some rain showers to come so I set about finding a spot where I could leave my drop-rig (Zoom F6 + stereo set of Clippy EM272s) out safely. There were some hiking trails which were quite popular with tourists and locals, so, after walking far enough away from the little dirt road and car park, I again took another smaller track off the main trail. There I found a little valley with a gentle stream. I followed this stream about 50 metres uphill where I was stopped in my tracks by my first ever Salamander! It was so strikingly black and yellow and it was a dream come true for me – I had always wanted to see one. I was starstruck!

Along this stream there was a fallen tree trunk which traversed its entirety and leaned up into the hillside. Walking a few metres up the hill so that the stream did not overwhelm the track, I set my mics just an inch or two inside a rotten crevice of the fallen tree. I knew they would be safe from the rain and would result in a natural sound when rain did fall. I hooked my drop rig up to a power-bank, hid the recorder in a drybag, covered by some leaf litter, and left it to do its job.

That night I was awoken by the rain and was so nervous thinking about my expensive equipment out there unsupervised. It was the first time I had left it out like that, knowing heavy rain was on the horizon. The following morning I went straight down to the valley and collected my equipment – it was bone dry AND I saw another Salamander! It was bigger than the last one and hung around for a closer look.

Before breakfast I uploaded my sounds and was totally blown away. Zero road noise, only a handful of planes, a mesmerising deluge of rain, a stunning dawn chorus amidst a subtle trickling stream, and, best of all, a mystery shape on the sonogram at the end of the track which turned out to be none other than a pair of fighting Brown Bears. I couldn’t have asked for more.

Recorded by Seán Ronayne in Zarnesti, Romania

A major cause of the flooding like this, happening year by year, is now being linked to the changes in the Settlement Geography of the inner Himalayas, where the water wreaking havoc in these floods, just exists as Rivulets. As peacefully flowing Khadds. Like the Awa Khadd, you are listening to.

Awa Khadd Rises from the Dhauladhar Ranges in Kangra Valley, and flows downstream to join river Beas, which ultimately drains into River Satluj in the state of Punjab. The Perennial nature of Awa, and similar Himalayan Khadds due to dual sources of water (both monsoon rains and glacier discharge) and an often violent flow due to the topographical contours, makes them suitable for the development of Hydropower projects. The Upper Awa Hydropower project is located on the Awa Khadd. This recording of Awa was done near a village called Kulani, close to the Kulani Hydropower Plant.

Khadd is the local name for a Rivulet in the Himalayan state of Himachal Pradesh in India. These Khadds, rising from various Mountain Ranges, flow as streams of varying magnitudes, contributing to the larger River Ecosystems in the region. They provide drinking water, as well as water for irrigation purposes to the rural and semi-urban settlements on their way to the cities, where the role is further amplified. More importantly, this complex network of Rivulets regulates the natural flow of water in the mountainous terrain of the Himalayas and maintains the ecological balance for the wider Flora and Fauna; an aspect of Himalayan River Ecosystems being urgently looked into, as the Eco-sensitive region has rapidly started facing adverse effects of Climate Change in the recent past.

Recording by

Mustard Lake in Himachal Pradesh, India

Recording by Marc Anderson in the Girringun National Park, Australia

The carcass is mostly eaten. What remains is the bones and some soft tissue. You can hear how the bones/spine are cracking in the Wolf’s jaws. Other than that, the Wolves are pretty much silent. There is no howling or other loud sounds because this spot is close to the shepherd dogs (cattle) down in the valley at approx. 1 km of air distance and those dogs are agitated from time to time during the night probably when winds change and start to blow towards them. The north wind (dark Bora) is blowing.

Recorded by Ivo Vicic in Mrzli Dol, Croatia

It rained heavily a day before we arrived, which brought out nature’s own sound concert. All the wildlife seemed to be celebrating the arrival of the rains. There were nature sounds everywhere! The birds started singing at 2am in the morning and continued throughout the day. Amidst the bird song, there were also crickets, large beetles, bats, frogs, hyenas, zebras and occasional lion roar from a distant, allowing us to sleep and reawaken our senses, be present and reconnect to the natural sounds of Tarangire plains.

Recorded by Martha Mutiso in Tanzania

Recording by Marc Anderson in Birds Head Peninsula, West Papua, Indonesia

Recording in Jelenje, Croatia by Ivo Vicic

Recording by Nick McMahan

Recording by Isaac Amoasi Arkoh

Recording by Jan Brelih in Choco, Colombia

This recording was done by Isaac Amoasi Arkohm, in Ghana, a current grantee of our field recording program.

The most common birds on this recording are: Common cuckoo (Cuculus canorus), Common chaffinch (Fringilla coelebs), Common blackbird (Turdus merula) , Song thrush (Turdus philomelos), European robin (Erithacus rubecula), Common wood pigeon (Columba palumbus), European green woodpecker (Picus viridis) and the Nightjar (Caprimulgidae) at the end of the recording as the night falls.

Other sounds captured: insects, walking of the deer or roe deer nearby and a faraway gentle stream.

Recorded in Croatia, by Ivo Vicic

A few meters away, a white horse shines and takes a deep breath in the darkness.

It’s getting dark. The crescent moon rises and illuminates the ground, the water and the plants with a silvery and mysterious light.

The inhabitants of the night begin to be heard: toads, crickets, owls, bats, urutaus and bacuraus. Some capybaras dive into the water.

Recorded by Verónica Cerrotta in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Recording by Verónica Cerrotta In São José do Vale do Rio Preto, Río de Janeiro

Drive across the country. Long straight roads. Steep winding roads. Exhausted but excited to be here. A distant croak from a raven interrupts my thoughts and I return to the moment. Here in this prairie to listen to the dawn. Spring morning air is cool in May. I breathe in deeply and crawl out of the warm sleeping bag. Bright, flat, and yellow-green the prairie is fully awake. I can’t tell you why, but it feels nostalgic looking out across the land here. Like I’ve returned home from a long trip and everything is exactly as I left it. I think we need these moments of waking up from social existence to be alone, completely alone in a natural place. In a way this is the least alone we can be. In deep nature we are truly what we are. Ourselves with no external observation or expectation to be one way or another. Just being. Just observing.

“We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.” 

-T. S. Eliot

Field Recording by Nick McMahan in Montana, USA

Recorded by Jared Blake in the Stephen C Foster State Park, USA

The area above Kamniška Bistrica, surrounded by mountains, was hit by a series of extremely powerful thunderstorms. Some of these storms triggered avalanches and flash floods. The recorded storm passed over the area during the night and you can hear the sounds of swollen torrential streams. Later, near the recording location, a flash flood was also triggered. The thunder of the storm echoes beautifully among the rocky walls of the surrounding mountains. What begins as a distant and quiet thunder develops nearer and powerful.

Recorded in Slovenia by Gregor Vida

Recorded by Jakub Orzęcki

Recording made Saint-Angel, France in June 2023.

Lê Quan Nihn is a percussionist in the field of contemporary music interpretation and free improvisation. He has also been recording nature sounds in France and Iceland, some of them kindly shared with us on Earth.fm.

Listen to more recordings from him here. To learn more about Nihn and his work, visit his website.

Recorded by Marc Anderson

Recording made at the Mount Lanaro Nature Reserve, Trieste, NE Italy, January 2021

Axel is a director, wildlife sound specialist, conservationist, and spatial audio designer. 

With his brother Ario, he runs the immersive production brand Sounding Wild. For their current project, Wings Across Continents, Axel and Ario are embarking on an overland expedition following the bird migration through Europe and West Africa with the goal of sharing stories about wildlife with local communities.

https://www.soundingwild.com

Finding my way up a muddy path on an Island in the Pacific is an ideal condition for natural listening. A growing cacophony ebbs and flows as the trail and nearby river weave near and far from each other. Up a steep hill, the water suddenly grows faint. I can hear the wind overhead. Drumming along is the thick bamboo grove that seems to have sprung out of nowhere. I placed two Sennheiser Microphones on a wide stereo bar as far from the trail as I dared to go.

Recorded by Nick McMahan at the Haleakala National Park, Hawaii

Recorded April 12, 2023, beaver pond behind elementary school, Williston, Vermont, USA

Steven is an author, educator, speaker, writer, photographer, a ‘technology demystifier,’ and a producer of video and audio media. To learn more about him and his vast work, visit his website linked below.

Earth.fm is a completely free streaming service of 600+ nature sounds from around the world, offering natural soundscapes and guided meditations for people who wish to listen to nature, relax, and become more connected.

Check out our recordings of nature ambience from sound recordists and artists spanning the globe, our thematic playlists of immersive soundscapesand our Wind Is the Original Radio podcast.

You can join the earth.fm family by signing up for our newsletter of weekly inspiration for your precious ears, or become a member and not only enjoy extra earth.fm features and goodies but help us grow new forests on our beloved planet.

Recorded April 12, 2023, beaver pond behind elementary school, Williston, Vermont, USA

A short snowstorm since the arrival until it passed.

The recording was done at high altitude in the mountain forest, at the edge of a cabin roof.

The weather is unstable and unusually warm for Winter: the temperature is +1C and snow melts and falls. The storm comes quickly and brings a blizzard with hail and fresh snow, thunder, wind… Ravens can be heard at the beginning of the recording.

Recorded in the end of winter of 2023, Williston, Vermont, USA.

Steven is an author, educator, speaker, writer, photographer, a ‘technology demystifier,’ and a producer of video and audio media. To learn more about him and his vast work, visit his website linked below.

Recording by Jan Brelih

Roger has been recording wildlife for almost five decades! He’s an author and a member of the Wildlife Sound Recording Society.

Learn more about our friends here.

Here in Doñana, there is a specific place in a daunting location where they breed . Unfortunately, we can't say where it is located as local conservationists want to keep it protected from human disturbance, but it is quite a magical place: an old holiday complex now owned by Lesser Kestrels, Little Owls, Barn Owls, Spotted Starlings, White Storks and many other birds. An eerie place, so quiet we could hear our blood pumping in our bodies.

Every evening the Lesser Kestrels - different from the Common Kestrels which don't migrate - would start roosting in the nesting boxes placed by local bird experts to increase the breeding success. The sounds of their squeaky calls echo in this abandoned place, where human presence is no longer found and wildlife thrives in a possibly unspoken collaboration misunderstood by both sides.

Recording by Sounding Wild in Doñana, Spain

Roger has been recording wildlife for almost five decades! He’s an author and a member of the Wildlife Sound Recording Society.

Learn more about our friends here.

This clip caught Robert at the start of a storm on a overhanging cliff, approaching the seals. Follow him for some minutes, listening to the seals, the thunder, rain and waves slushing in the gully.

Roger has been recording wildlife for almost five decades! He's an author and a member of the Wildlife Sound Recording Society.

Learn more about our friends here.

Recording by Ivo Vicic in Jelenje, Croatia

Recorded in April 10, 2022, in a riparian woodland along the Winooski River, Richmond, Vermont, USA.

Steven is an author, educator, speaker, writer, photographer, a ‘technology demystifier,’ and a producer of video and audio media. To learn more about him and his vast work, visit his website linked below.

If you are curious about woodpeckers, we recommend you Chris Hails' wonderful website with over 10 articles about them.

Field recording by Marc Anderson in Doi Pha Hom Pok National Park, Thailand

Recorded in Spring 2023, Mud Pond Nature Preserve, Williston, Vermont, USA

Steven is an author, educator, speaker, writer, photographer, a ‘technology demystifier,’ and a producer of video and audio media. To learn more about him and his vast work, visit his website linked below.

https://www.shepardcomm.com/

To learn about who Loren Corey Eiseley was, visit the Loren Eiseley Society at https://www.eiseley.org/

Jungle at the Himalayan foothills known as Shiwalik Hills where elephants, tigers and leopards still roam. More saturated bird activity can be observed here, creating a more vibrant acoustic environment, compared to a higher mountain habitat. As the morning goes on, the atmosphere evolves and changes dramatically.

Field recording by Jan Brelih at the Rajaji National Park, India

Recording by Verónica Cerrotta

During this period, the males turn a beautiful blue color due to the accumulation of lymph in the subcutaneous lymphatic sinuses. The azure shade of their skin is temporary and only lasts during mating.

The moor frog mating call is unmistakable, sounding like “wuog … wuog … wuog,” resembling a gurgling and chuckling bottle being opened underwater. During the breeding season, the marsh frogs’ amorous calls are often accompanied by deep grumbling sounds produced by common grass frogs, which inhabit the same areas.

Let yourself be enchanted by the evolving soundscape of the frog choir during the early spring sunrise.

Field recording by Jakub Orzęcki. Barycz Valley, Poland

Field recording by Marc Anderson

Deep, rolling waves.

Carrying the ocean’s song to the shore

Smooth pebbles caressed by time

Recording by Mat Eric Hart

#fieldrecording by Sounding Wild

The surrounding mountains create this nice natural echo. Recorded in late Spring

Field recording by Ivo Vicic

It was a rare sunny afternoon on this rugged stretch of coastline, with strong wind blowing from the north and huge waves crashing far out which created a continuous low roar. Heavy haze hung in the air, kicked up by the wind and crashing surf. The rocky, boulder strewn shore was fully exposed by the low tide, with barnacles, mussels, sea anemones, and a myriad of other kinds of sea life awaiting the incoming tide. Small flocks of shorebirds called Black Turnstones foraged for food on the exposed rocks, quickly moving out of the way as waves crashed against the rocks.

Recorded by Kelly Rafuse

One can listen to the dawn chorus and later to roe deer barking around the microphone array.

Recording by Ivo Vicic

This place is an ancient neolithic era settlement: there are monoliths nearby, and the field in which the recording took place has an ancient Celtic stone maze that can only be seen from satellite photos.

Field recording by Steven Baber

Recorded by Marc Anderson in 2012.

Field recording by Jan Brelih

Recording by Sounding Wild in the Basque Country

Recording by Melissa Pons

Recording by Melissa Pons

Field Recording by Jared Blake

Tracklist:

Jan Brelih: Winter Rain Near a Lake

Khristos Nizamis: Wind Deep Creek Solitude

Jan Brelih: Wind Above the Forest Cliffs

Jocelyn + Melissa: Ebb Current in Rocky Shore

Recording by Veronica Cerrotta

Recording by Jared Blake

Recording by Kelly Rafuse

Here's for you a curated playlist for this season with winter soundscapes from both hemispheres.

Tracklist:

Night at Fifteen Mile Creek in Early Winter (Khristos Nizamis)

Dawn at Fifteen Mile Creek in Early Winter (Khristos Nizamis)

Birdsong in Flói (Magnus Bersson)

Iceberg Fragments (Daniel Blinkhorn)

Melting Snow in the Forest (Jan Brelih)

Into the Old-growth Forest (Lars Edenius)

Winter Woodland (Marc Anderson)

Morning at a Creek in Early Winter (Khristos Nizamis)

Crackly campfire in the woods of Voloderac (Marko Javorski)

Winter on the Warta River (Joachim Rupik)

Elk Feeding on Snow (Stein Nilsen)

Heavy Snowfall in the Beech Forest (Håkan Karlsson)

Ice on Graubünden Lake (Felix Blume)

Mountain Meadow (Vladimir Arkhipov)

Recording by Khristos Nizamis

Recording by Melissa Pons

Recording by Marc Anderson

Recording by Jared Blake

The wp.earth.fm curator-in-chief, field recordist Melissa Pons brings us into the forest of Sweden, the jungle of Brazil, and to the wolves in Portugal.

Re-published with the kind permission of Rob Rosenthal, PRX and Transom.

Please let us know in the comments if you have any feedback. Enjoy!

We are invited to relax and rest our attention on the sounds of this enchanted forest with ASMR ambience of melting snow in late winter time. The days are getting longer and warmer, the forest is changing.

On the banks of the river, between the many willow, bird cherry trees and bushes the nightingales like to sing. Other birds can be heard in the background: Common Chiffchaff, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Common Blackbird, Garden Warbler, Cuckoo and others. This was recorded on May 13th, 2021.

Recording and words by Andrus Kannel

From Jared: "These recordings took place throughout the year in the Sandwich Wilderness of the White Mountain National Forest. Each day, I hiked from the parking area directly up the Wonalancet River, jumping from rock to rock. Because I wasn’t on a trail, I was able to experience and capture parts of the Wonalancet largely unknown to the world."

Enjoy! 🙏🏼🌏