Field Recordings

“In a quiet spring morning dozens of bees were frantically collecting nectar from a flowering blackberry bush. They were vey loud and busy.”

“The first real heat is hitting and the frogs are out, the humans are slowing down & the beeps are beeping.”

“Because of the heat (it was 33 degrees or so), we went to the woods. My son and his friend were making music with sticks and trees. One of their sticks snapped and had to be replaced. Then the replacement snapped, and needed replacing too.”

“A horse and foal graze near the roadside by Lough Inagh”

“Standing by the side of the road for the Noise Parade as the Kilfinane Noise Band (made up of the Kilfinane National School 3rd-6th classes) march through the streets at Hearsay Festival making joyful chaos – led by audio producer Mike Williams”

“Sitting in a garden in rural Suffolk on a lovely Saturday morning. The weather was glorious, the birds and insects were incredibly loud. It felt like a spring explosion!”

“One day a year, I turn the quintessential night owl that I am into an early bird and get up before dawn to participate in Reveil . This magical project by Soundcamp broadcasts the sounds of the Dawn Chorus, live streamed by people all over the world. For 24+1 hours, you can hear the earth waking up, as the mix makes a loop around the globe. Every year, I’m profoundly touched by the po...

“I recorded it with a set of binaural earphones. On the chairlift is this plastic hood that you can drop down if it rains. It was up though and served as this big reflective shield. That is one of the reasons (I think) you can hear the small brook coming from afar quite early on and when we get there it is louder than it has any right to be.”

“Standing in a frosted field watching a couple of rabbits bounce across the grass – geese occasionally fly overhead, you can hear a distant rooster, a tree-ful of crows, some sheep and the steadily waking up nearby road.”

“Recent lambs, their parents, and a helicopter that drones overhead and goes away again.”

“I think I scared the parents off yesterday by standing holding my phone atop the stepladder so I had to stick a proper recorder there and leave it to get you this. Shed interior followed by the thump of an arriving parent with food and then chaos. Enjoy!”

“The Memory Den is a large warehouse converted to a vintage shopping Mall in the industrial area of Portland, Oregon, USA. Trains hauling a hundred wagons pass along the tracks just meters away from the building. This recording is from inside the Memory Den: a passing train sounds its horn and kids play the basketball shooting machine inside the Mall before dabbling on an old piano. Recorded...

“A recording of a model steam organ playing next to a row of stationary steam engines at the Coleford Carnival of Transport, an annual vintage car fair in The Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire. Recorded on Easter Monday, 6 April 2026”

“Busker playing something slowish on guitar, while two old men rocked out to their own huge speaker that they’d wheeled in…”

“I recorded this snippet from the window of my room as I was lying in bed and listening to the Organ being played in the church next door and people walking by.”

“A concrete structure built 100 years ago to detect the sound of aircraft flying over the channel. Did it work? No! But it still stands despite this, and despite the years and the weather since (today: 30mph winds).”

“Five minutes out of the wind while walking along the Kent coastline.”

“Captured from the bridge above the station. You can hear trains passing by, coming into the station and going out, as well as people coming and going. A small, busy station full of London life.”

‘Hold On’ was written by Heidi Wilson, in the wake of a tragedy in Walden, Vermont six years ago. In 2026, people have begun to sing this song in cities around the world, most poignantly in Minneapolis – as groups began singing in the face of ICE’s devastating presence. This recording was made by Will Coley at a Resistance Sing In in New York, a collaboration between Resist...

“At the New York City Resistance Sing In on March 19, activists from several groups shared and taught protest songs to a packed Riverside Church. Claire from Singing Resistance Minneapolis brought this song that was written to encourage ICE agents ‘to walk away from the path of violence and take accountability for harm they’ve caused.'”

“ere’s a field recording of a scrap metal man who comes round my village; Bream, The Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, UK. I had been trying to catch his call for months, and when he drove up my lane I only had my phone at hand. It was recorded in the summer of 2025. You can hear his call as he passed my house, then the chatter of sparrows and the hum of bees, and finally his call from...