Field Recordings

“Every 4th of July in my neighborhood, there is an hours-long competition to see which corner can launch the most illegal fireworks. It gets quite intense, and I recorded it this year with binaural mics. I guess this is the diametric opposite to the stereotypical field recording of a quiet rural meadow–but I thought I’d submit it, in case it catches your interest.”

“Via Balilla is a small street in Rome where people gather together once a year to celebrate the local community. Back in the days the street was famous for containing within it, apparently, several conflicting living realities. It all started in 1993 when the inhabitants decided to meet and get to know each other better. Everyone brought what they could; chairs and tables, typical food and...

“About 20 drummers and hundreds of festival goers gathered around the fire at the centre of the stone circle and played throughout the night.  This recording was made at 4am just before the sunrise.”

“at a friend’s cottage on lake michigan. it was early evening & i wanted to capture the sounds of water breaking on the shore, and of our kids playing—singing to themselves—nearby.”

“Here are some Dutch bells from last week.  I was cycling from Amsterdam to Lille and stayed overnight in Gouda where I went to the market square just before 11pm and caught the carillon of the church of St John, with a background of people drinking in the cafes and, near the end, a passing cyclist.  Best listened to with headphones as it is a binaural recording.”  

“I was in Greece last week, on my first full day there I was on an early morning walk when I started to hear this distant sound of bells but couldn’t see where it was coming from. Then out of nowhere, I started to see so many mountain goats with bells around their necks. It felt really quite magical, and such a beautiful sound.”

“Thousands of protestors gather outside the Royal Courts of Justice to call for the decriminalisation of abortion. Abortion in England and Wales still falls under criminal law in 2023 – specifically the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act. 67 people have faced legal prosecutions in the past decade alone. A few days before this protest happened, Carla Foster was sentenced to more than...

“I was having an afternoon dose on Monday when the stormy weather rolled in around South London. My room is situated within a block of flats, and the courtyard reflects all outside sounds into a reverberant soundscape. I like to keep my windows open and let in all the sounds from outside. I thought this storm would make for a good recording whilst I doze. Persistent rain and rippling rumbles...

“12.06.2023. Caught in a thunderstorm on a hot London day in Abney Park cemetery. A passer by on her mobile phone remarks ‘not soaked, soaked…'” 

“The history of the Wolzenalp chairlift, in eastern Switzerland, goes back over 50 years. It was built in 1965. The slow journey from the valley to the mountain takes a good 20 minutes over meadows, trees and 400 meters in altitude. We had to take the chairlift to get to a moor where we did some recordings for our botany podcast.”

“Icebergs break off the Breiðamerkurjökull glacier and drift through the water into the Atlantic Ocean, some of them glowing a surreal, bright blue – others vast and blackened like old ships. Small pieces of ice wash onto the shore of the black sand beach, tiny glass sculptures alongside the smooth water-worn pebbles. This lagoon started forming in 1934 when the glacier began to retrea...

“More than 300 marble columns create a space that could hold 80,000 cubic metres of water.  The space hums with constant reverberations from the slightest sounds.  I stood at the very back corner of the cistern and recorded while the last few visitors made their way round the rattling gangways.”

“I made this tiny recording of bees in Gros Morne National Park on the west coast of Newfoundland. It was August, 2022, peak summer, and the big bees were zooming in and out of the clover and a patch of fireweed and other tall wildflowers at the edge of our campsite. Also heard: a bird call, footsteps, the voice of a four year old, and the Park Ranger’s truck.”

“I’ve been walking past this music college on the way to work for nearly fifteen years. Each year, as the weather gets warmer, the musicians open the windows of their practice rooms and the sounds of jazz bands, opera singers and soloists pour out into the sunshine – interweaving with lawnmowers, helicopters and the sound of the water alongside.”

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“I was at the Jack in the Green procession in Hastings Old Town earlier today and managed to get a quick recording of the various players (in wonderful garbs) drifting in and out as they marched.” 

“At the bustling Chesterfield flea market, I was immersed in the vibrant sounds of a funfair. This popular weekly market is one of the largest in the UK.” Photo: David Dixon

Two minutes before the testing of the emergency alert system. photo: Oxford Circus tube station building, London by Eluveitie