Field Recordings

“I recorded this in the Ionian Sea, holding a hydrophone just above the rocks where the tide was moving. What comes through is a whole submerged conversation – clicks and crackles, pops and snaps, layered under the slower rhythm of water against stone. Some of those sounds are fish, and barnacles, but most of that crackling is likely snapping shrimp: tiny crustaceans with one oversized...

“Since early August, through this summer’s multiple heatwaves, this park has had a thick carpet of dead leaves. Right now you can see the beginnings of a false autumn as full green branches stand side by side with skeletal bare trees, the fallen leaves slowly taken away by the council in large transparent bags.”

“Every evening the sparrows would descend onto this bush that covered the walls of the patio. For the first hour or so they would always make lots of noise, sounded like they were arguing!”

“This nocturnal visitor has been right outside our bedroom window these past few mornings, just a couple of miles from Glasgow city centre. At first I wondered if it might be a fox cub. Today I managed to record its call… my bird identification app reckons it’s a Tawny Owl. My friend, who knows about these things, agrees, and says it’s very likely a girl owl, because girls go &#8...

“It felt genuinely moving seeing this park fill with people gathering to see the changing light. Unified by the same stupid Instagram algorithm, the park was awash with people staring intently into colanders, pushing their faces up against cereal packets and old CD jewel cases, or just wearing large boxes on their heads. It might have been my imagination but as the light grew eerily dark, Gr...

“John Cage’s Organ2/ASLSP composition is being performed on a custom built organ for 639 years at St. Buchardi Church in Halberstadt, Germany. Hundreds of people from all around the world […]

“On the last night of my holidays, I hoped to record the jackdaws that congregate in the trees next to the Basilique Notre-Dame de Délivrance in Quintin, Bretagne. When I […]

“At low tide, the beach of Hillion in Bretagne is dotted with rocks full of oysters, sea snails and other clicking, crackling, crunching creatures. One of those rocks was particularly […]

“One night in Cornwall, around 2 AM, I heard a tawny owl outside the holiday cottage where I was staying. I quickly grabbed my Zoom H5 and went out in […]

“I woke early on Saturday morning to head to Camden, and then Farringdon, to record the sounds of the River Fleet. It is one of London’s twenty ghost rivers. Ghost […]

“Just recorded this! It’s the choir in the church behind our apartment mixing with fire engines.”

“Love how this vintage pinball spot sounds — you can really hear the rattling of the bells and the smack of the flippers, the whoosh of the ball shooting up […]

“I’ve been to the top of Signal Hill more times than I can count. But never while there was enough fog to trigger the foghorn. I loved hearing the foghorn call out among the sounds of the ever present, blustery wind and the many tourists.  I’ll send a photo of the view of the narrows at the entrance to the most easterly harbour in North America.”

“It’s a field recording session from a pond close to Monte Gussa, near the city of Bergamo. In the audio, you can hear various types of insects, moorhens, bees, light aircraft, and bells. I love this place, which is so close to my home.”

“I’ve got a little recording of some Eider ducks on a rainy Loch Fyne in May this year – the cooling sounds of the water might be a nice antidote to current conditions!  It was a bit windy and the ducks remained always just a little bit far out, but you can just about catch them out there I think.”

“I heard this grey tree frog while biking through Ottawa’s Central Experimental Farm late at night this past June 8. I had never heard this sound before and was captivated and scared at the same time.”

“On a quiet, rainy Saturday morning I was sitting under the porch of my studio enjoying a coffee. Despite the rain and wind, birds seemed to be having a very busy time, with a robin leading the racket.”

“Recorded from Woolwich, on the other side of the river Thames. The sound of the factory, along with planes coming and going from City airport, boats and the river all mixed together to form a drone like wall of sound.”