Field Recordings

“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

“These are the church bells of St Bartholomew in the town of Lostwithiel around 8.30pm on a still evening. The next morning I put my foot in it by congratulating my bell ringing neighbour on how great they’d been sounding, only to be told that they were taking the summer off and last night’s ringers were from the neighbouring village of Tywardreath.”

“The Tigre Delta is among the world’s largest, and it is one of the only major deltas in the world that does not empty into a sea or ocean. It flows instead into the Río de la Plata, which separates Argentina and Uruguay, after the Río Paraná splits into several smaller rivers and forms a multitude of sedimentary islands covered in forest and grasslands.” 

https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/07/24/italys-mounting-attack-lesbian-parents “In January, Italy’s right-wing government ordered state agencies to cease registration of children born to same-sex couples. Now they’ve taken it a step further: a state prosecutor in northern Italy has ordered the cancellation and re-issuance of 33 birth certificates of lesbian couples’ children, endangering access...

“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…'”