Field Recordings

“Quite noisy rain on the ocean…”

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

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

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

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

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

A slow weave of some of the past year’s Field Recordings, from a church in Vilnius to a floating choir in Copenhagen. Orthodox Christmas service, Catholic Church of St. Johns, Vilnius, Lithuania on 7th January 2023 – by Vaida Pilibaitytė “On January 7th I went to an unusual Orthodox Christmas service at the Catholic Church of St. Johns in Vilnius… organised by the Lithuanian Orthodox priests...

Radio With Palestine is a series of live transmissions. The broadcast on 11 November 2023 included streams from: London (Cat Byrne) Bruxelles (Nele Möller, Inne Eysermans) London (Emily Moore) Chania, Crete (Maria Papadomanolaki) It also featured sounds from a long-term stream from Rue de la Poudrière, Bruxelles by Stéfan Piat. The show was mixed live from Arnes, Catalunya by Mort Drew. Radio With...

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

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

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

“On 11th November 2023, hundreds of thousands of people marched peacefully through London calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. Chanting “ceasefire now” and “stop bombing children”, organisers estimated 800,000 people walked the route from Hyde Park to the American Embassy in Vauxhall. Inflammatory rhetoric from the UK Government in the days running up to the march, partic...

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

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

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

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

“I recorded this landscape on a summer afternoon, in a pasture land where a canal and a country road intersect; around 5 kilometers away from the center of town. Over the steady sound of the frogs and insects, one can hear the calls and songs of the different local birds: the pampa finch or “verdón” (Embernagra platensis), the rufous-collared sparrow or “chingolo” (Zonotrichia capensis), the...

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

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

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