The HomeSounds Show

Welcome Home Everybody! In this episode, Rob, myself and our Sidestrand School group head to the East Norfolk Coast. Keeping the exact location secret for conservation reasons, and in spite of the car park pay machine doing its level best to prevent anyone from spending anytime there, we gathered and laid out our plans. A beach and sea wall walk of about 45 minutes will lead us to a colony of beac...

Welcome Home Everybody! In this episode, Rob leads us on a hunt for Frogs and their copper-eyed cousins Toads. We started with a careful walk through the woods at Sheringham Park, dodging the toads crossing our path that were making safe passage to the ponds where they lay their spawn. Rob tells us that toads squeak, so we stopped to investigate.  From Sheringham we jump back into the bus and make...

Welcome Home Everybody! In 2024 I was privileged and delighted to be appointed ‘Environmentalist in Residence’ for Suffolk Libraries, an independent charity running the public library service for the county of Suffolk in the UK. For this residency I created a project titled ‘Seconds of Sound’ within which lay two main strands of work. The aim of the first was for me to walk between all 45 of Suffo...

Welcome Home Everybody! A few weeks ago I managed to get my hands on a new microphone developed by the field recordist and sound artist Jez Riley French. The ecoutic is an adapted version of Jez’s popular c-series contact microphone. Short or long metal probes attach to the original c-series microphone body. These probes allow the microphone to penetrate soils, substrates, plant stems and many oth...

Welcome Home Everybody! In this episode I, along with Sue Grime from North Norfolk District Council’s Coastwise project, take our Sidestrand school group on a trip to West Runton beach. West Runton forms part of the Deep History Coast, a 22 mile section of North Norfolk shoreline famously home, amongst other ancient treasures, to the remains of a 600,000 year old Steppe Mammoth, the bones of rhino...

Welcome home everybody! In this episode, Rob led our Sidestrand school group on a hunt for Hares across the North Norfolk Countryside. Using the school minibus as a mobile hide, we scampered down country lanes, and pitched in opportune parking spots when we either came across suitable hare habitats, or spotted one sitting on, or sprinting across, a farmers field. To aid our hunt, we made use of a...

Welcome Home Everybody! In this episode, the first of two which have been created as part of HomeSounds ‘Lessons from Listening’ series, Martin talks with Ximena Alarcon, a sound artist-researcher interested in listening and sounding human sonic migrations, and experiencing the resonances left in between the borders we cross when we tune in and meet others across distant  locations. Throughout her...

Welcome Home Everybody! In this episode, the second of two which have been created as part of HomeSounds ‘Lessons from Listening’ series, Martin talks with Ximena Alarcon, a sound artist-researcher interested in listening and sounding human sonic migrations, and experiencing the resonances left in between the borders we cross when we tune in and meet others across distant  locations. Throughout he...

Welcome Home Everybody! In this episode Rob and I have invited our group of young people from Sidestrand School to Sheringham Park. A regular venue for us, we make the education centre at the park our base for today’s adventures. On this trip we’re hoping to be able to watch, listen to and learn more about the bird life of the park, particularly those that visit the feeders at the education centre...

Welcome home everybody! In this episode Rob and I lead our Sidestrand School group on a walk along the shingle and sand dunes of Blakeney Point, a spit of land on the North Norfolk Coast that is incrementally lost to the sea as it rolls out for 4 miles. The point is a national nature reserve currently managed by the National Trust, and it gives protection for Blakeney Harbour and the surrounding s...

Welcome home everybody, and welcome to The HomeSounds Show! In this episode, Rob and I are looking for mushrooms, not only because of their incredible variety and fascinating history as possibly the first life forms on planet earth, but also because of the potential, made possible by bio-sonification, of hearing them. Following our previous experiments in this inspiring area of environmental liste...

Welcome Home Everybody ! In this episode, the second of two parts, Martin continues his interview with acoustician and naturalist Michael Stocker. Drawing inspiration from Michael's wonderfully free-ranging and rich book, Hear Where We Are, the conversation, and accompanying audio extracts, explore the myriad themes within Michaels book and relate these to the experiences of the HomeSounds project...

Welcome Home Everybody ! In this episode, the first of two parts, Martin interviews acoustician and naturalist Michael Stocker. Drawing inspiration from Michael's wonderfully free-ranging and rich book, Hear Where We Are, the conversation, and accompanying audio extracts, explore the myriad themes within Michaels book and relate these to the experiences of the HomeSounds project. The book examines...

Welcome Home Everybody! In this episode, recorded in the late summer of 2020, Rob and I visit a section of Weybourne Heath on the North Norfolk Coast here in the UK, in search of a bird the song of which is matched only by its appearance and character in exciting the imagination. An African migrant, the crepuscular Nightjar, and its breathless churring song, sits comfortably in the unscientific ca...

Welcome Home Everybody ! The HomeSounds project began working with the National Trust in the autumn of 2022 through its Riverlands project and has installed two live-streaming microphones at their Felbrigg and Blickling Estates. Running Alongside these installations are a series of educational activities encouraging people to become more active in their environmental listening. In today's episode...

Welcome Home Everybody ! The HomeSounds project began working with the National Trust in the autumn of 2022 through its Riverlands project and has installed two live-streaming microphones at their Felbrigg and Blickling Estates. Running Alongside these installations are a series of educational activities encouraging people to become more active in their environmental listening. In these sessions w...

Welcome Home Everybody ! The HomeSounds project began working with the National Trust in the autumn of 2022 through its Riverlands project and has installed two live-streaming microphones at their Felbrigg and Blickling Estates. Running Alongside these installations are a series of educational activities encouraging people to become more active in their environmental listening. The first of these...

Welcome Home Everybody! The HomeSounds project began working with the National Trust in the autumn of 2022 through its Riverlands project and has installed two live-streaming microphones at their Felbrigg and Blickling Estates. Running Alongside these installations are a series of educational activities encouraging people to become more active in their environmental listening. The first of these i...

Welcome Home Everybody! HomeSounds creator Martin Scaiff is joined by exquisite musician and friend Jesse Barrett. Together they attempt to discuss and demonstrate something of the role acoustic habitats play in shaping our creativity. They also fall in a big hole, try to start a rumour about a fish-man-creature of the broads and spot a heron. After walking and recording at Wheatfen they retire to...

Welcome Home Everybody! The HomeSounds project began working with the National Trust in the autumn of 2022 through its Riverlands project and has installed two live-streaming microphones at their Felbrigg and Blickling Estates. Running Alongside these installations are a series of educational activities encouraging people to become more active in their environmental listening. The first of these i...

Welcome Home Everybody! The HomeSounds project began working with the National Trust in the autumn of 2022 through its Riverlands project and has installed two live-streaming microphones at their Felbrigg and Blickling Estates. Running Alongside these installations are a series of educational activities encouraging people to become more active in their environmental listening. The first of these i...

Welcome Home Everybody! The HomeSounds project began working with the National Trust in the autumn of 2022 through its Riverlands project and has installed two live-streaming microphones at their Felbrigg and Blickling Estates. Running Alongside these installations are a series of educational activities encouraging people to become more active in their environmental listening. The first of these i...