“Living in the middle of a concrete, urban environment the news of another lockdown was bleak. I went at dawn on the first day to find stillness and a bit […]
“The thunderstorm that ended in tragedy for the city: lost homes and a washed away zoo that released its animals into the streets (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jul/08/the-tragedy-of-tbilisi-zoo-what-happened-next-georgian-capital)”
“You can climb the hills around the river with spectacular views, storks flying in formation underneath. There’s also a series of pagoda temples embedded in the hills nearby.” www.fairly.media
“The story I’ve heard (but not been able to confirm) about the naming of the region is that the name comes from French settlers who heard the indigenous people calling […]
“Sound from a limestone beach on Washington Island in Wisconsin. The stones on the shoreline have fallen from nearby cliffs and been polished over hundreds of years. On a windy […]
“I recorded these tundra swans at sunset on the day after Christmas. Every year, they stop over in Madison, Wisconsin, on their way to the Chesapeake Bay. Usually my family […]
“I was prepping a fire in our log burner on a cold, blustery day here in Devoran, Cornwall and the wind whistling through the vents was really creepy! So I […]
“I sat at this beach on a cool spring day with my ten-month-old daughter who makes a couple of cameo gurgles. It’s steady surf sound punctuated by some beautiful birdsong, including […]
“Groups of Iberian Wolves in Portugal howl into the nights of Autumn in Mafra, Portugal. In a beautiful mediterranean forest, where other species co-exist, the Wolf easily becomes the center […]
“I made a rowboat cruise through the canals of Venice, rowing away into the lagoon, on a quiet November evening. You can hear the sounds of a few motor boats […]
“I hunkered down in our local harbour in the early hours of the morning. The constant battering of the wind on the sails and masts made some really interesting sounds.” […]
“Two boys dare each other to run across the thin, cracked layer of ice which zigzags over the surface of the marshland. Their joyful shrieks scatter the crows from a […]
“This is taken from my garden (a small field), next to the railway line, while a few doors down someone works with a circular saw. I was indoors doing my […]
“After probably the most turbulent Christmas of my life, this morning I woke up in a neighbourhood of Milan covered in snow. I took a walk toward my studio, leaving […]
“A windy tromp to an icy brook through the snowy woods behind my house. The snow was deep enough that it felt like I was walking through sand dunes. When […]
“I made this recording in the run up to Christmas in a barn on a turkey farm in the South Downs National Park in East Sussex. The bizarre collective gobble-gobble trill […]
“This recording starts with a distressingly loud helicopter flying overhead but I’ve kept it in because I think it helps to contrast with and accentuate the quiet that comes after.”
“The Loupin Stanes is a small stone circle that has stood in the Esk Valley in Southern Scotland for around five thousand years. This was recorded binaurally within the circle […]
“I am sending you a recording I did during lockdown. It was at a very particular part of the city, where the urban traffic and the few remaining sounds of […]
A slow weave of some of 2020’s Field Recordings in chronological order. Pebble Bay, Nuuk, Greenland in March 2020 by Katalin Laszlo “It’s -20 degrees, and at first I can’t […]
“I present to you, the haunting of the Ghost Train! echoing through the thin winter air. I can hear the call of the train travel four miles from Portland across […]
“Leah was chopping brussels sprouts and putting them into a risotto, which is an amazing thing she does around this time of year. I was doing a bad attempt at […]
“Spending my quarantine in the woods. The snow mostly makes everything extra quiet, but when the wind blows you can hear the cracking of branches and gentle thuds of boughs […]
“A mind-frying congregation of vibrating exoskeletons, birds and mammals celebrating the gifts of rainfall around a newly formed lake in the Louga région of Senegal. These party animals were nowhere to […]
“This is a binaural recording while I was standing between the North Grand Island Bridges in Grand Island New York.” www.throwbackreviews.com/theaveragerunner
“I live nearby this really captivating and ominous water tower so walked up the hill there. It sounded surprisingly crunchy because it’s gotten quite icy and I was walking through […]
“I’ve heard this train for months now at my home approximately 7 miles (11.25 km) away and waited 2 hours for it to pass one morning. Being so close was […]
“I stayed one or two nights in this hotel that was directly opposite Shinjuku park. Not a field per se but a pretty standard urban park: fairly landscaped, surrounded by […]
“Recorded towards the end of July 2020, down at the shore near the entrance to Dunbar’s New Harbour. The ruin of Dunbar Castle dominates the harbour and provides a nesting site […]
“When the sun rises in El Impenetrable forest, in the Chaco province of Argentina, and the day begins, the charatas (a local bird) start to sing (or maybe caw?), one […]
“By the time I got dressed and out of the house, a dance party erupted a few blocks away. People handing out booze on street corners. Two glasses of champagne […]
“Late Saturday morning (or was it afternoon), I was sitting in my pajamas, still drinking coffee and engaging in general lazing when I heard something outside… Opened the window to […]
“I recorded this one of the last times you were sick. I’d spent the evening at your house, my bedroom door ajar to listen for you in the night. You […]
“I recorded these pebbles being carried by the waves, whilst my partner was having a swim (it was FAR too cold for me to get in). We also met this dog. Then […]
“In the grasslands (Sahel) of Senegal I was making recordings in the brutal midday sun. It was this day that these grasslands had come alive for it had finally rained the […]
“It was the middle of the night and the thunder woke me. My family slept on peacefully. But I’d never heard thunder like it. It was quite thrilling. Like a […]
“We’re emerging from our little lockdown bubbles here in Melbourne, and I was keen to stretch out past the 5km radius I’d been confined to since July. It was good […]
“This past June, at least in the US, there was a sense that the fireworks going off well into the night, every night, across neighbourhoods in major cities were a […]
“Riverbeds in south Africa and Botswana are home to incredibly loud and varied soundscapes as the rainy season arrives. The acoustics of these places make them perfect for birds to […]
“In lockdown cycling to Tottenham Marshes has afforded me some early morning solitary peace amongst the singing grasses and the quiet boats bobbing upon the canal. As the sun started […]
“After being repeatedly woken by the birds outside my window at 5 AM, I finally managed to muster the energy to point my recorder out at the dawn chorus before […]
“I had driven past this field, close to my home in Kent, many times. Last year it was filled with rapeseed. This year it was wheat. In late April I […]
“I stand among the graves of Nunhead cemetery. My eyes are fixed on a set of headstones, adorned with draped urns rendered in stone. The partly cloaked objects appear to […]
“Dusk is one of the most active times for bird and frog calls in this marsh in Quebec, Canada. The large open space invites listening, with birds swooping by and lots […]
“This little pocket-handkerchief sized reservoir sits between the main BNSF rail line and Highway 64 just 50 miles south of the Grand Canyon and is a popular recreational spot so […]
“I sat by this brook for a long time recording its burblings before an older couple walked down the trail, ‘taking pictures of the water are ya?’ the man asked. […]
“The recording is from the place where I grew up and where I used to listen to the soundscapes since my early childhood. There is a meadow with some old fruit trees, […]
“Last night we watched a tree fall. A loud crack – before the landscape fell apart. It collapsed in front of the moonlit lake across the path behind us. Branches […]
“I’m on furlough, and stuck indoors by lockdown and the rain.There was thunder and lightning, not much. And then it started to rain. I stood at my bedroom window and […]
“I’m reasonably knowledgeable about birds but last year I heard something I couldn’t recognise. It was a strange high-pitched squeak. It turned out to be a roe deer kid ( […]
“I stumbled across this gently babbling brook on an overcast New Year’s Day walk in the charming village of Cornwell, West Oxfordshire, close to where we live in the Cotswolds. […]
“Opening my back door on a rare wet summer evening in Hackney, to let in the scent of petrichor. ‘A pleasant smell that frequently accompanies the first rain after a […]
“Goblin Coombe is a quiet limestone valley, fringed by woodlands and bordering Bristol (International) airport. The airport has expanded dramatically over the last 10 years, meaning that recording opportunities are […]
“Blackness, freedom and cycling feel connected. In a country where we aren’t free, bikes allow us to take at least some of that freedom back, using our minds and bodies […]
“A thunderstorm recorded in the Pagrati neighbourhood of Athens, Greece in July of 2014. That summer an international group of artists converged to attend the annual Syros Sound Meetings at […]
“Recorded our walk around Crystal Palace Park in London on Sunday 5th April. We followed social distancing advice and kept at least 2 metres from all other park dwellers, including […]
This soundscape was recorded by Ann Jones — host of ABC nature podcast Off Track (https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/offtrack/) while on the road in Wiluna, Western Australia. “Wiluna is a town on the […]
“The curfew goes into effect at 2’05” on this recording. This is recorded in a neighborhood with a relatively low police presence. The recording includes: fairly constant police and news […]
“Just wanted to share a clip of my neighbour playing saxophone. I went out to smoke and they were just going to town, loved this humanity…” www.jamestgreen.com
“Ok here’s some windblown tape of me tromping around on some very fertile earth in a big wooded park in Atlanta, Georgia. I stood in the middle of that photo […]
“Earlier this year, before all the doors locked and we were forced to gaze at each other from afar, a friend of mine decided it was about time we went […]
“The melodious calls of Ethiopian Orioles bounce from treelines as other endemic species call at Harenna Forest in Ethiopia. Colobus monkeys start uttering their terrifying territorial calls as the sun […]
“The smallest of the Small Isles in the Inner Hebrides, the Isle of Muck is thought to take its auspicious name from the Gaelic word ‘muc-mara’ (meaning ‘sea pig’ or […]
“I made this recording last week in Gouda, the Netherlands. I live in Utrecht, but during this quarantine period, I’m staying with my mother in the centre of Gouda. I suddenly heard this […]
“I recorded this a week ago, in a little copse overlooking the sea, close to St Donats in South Wales. It is nearing sunset and the birds are settling down, […]
“From a small river island in the California delta, where I grew up. I just arrived to see my parents for the first time since the Covid-19 pandemic separated us. […]
“Victoria Park is right next to the motorway, next to Glasgow’s Clyde Tunnel which links the north of the city to the south. You can hear the traffic, see the […]
“I recently starting subletting a room in a house on the edge of London Fields in East London, so I’m going to be doing a lot of listening to fields […]
“Clear and calm weather with minimal wind provided the perfect chance to document many sets of waves rolling onto South Golden Beach, just north of Byron Bay. Recording close to […]
“Seyðisfjörður, at the top of the mountain, east of the town. A tiny black and white bird was sitting in its nest. While I approached he started to fly around […]
“Robinson Crusoe is a very isolated island in the Pacific Ocean, 600 km off the coast of Chile. I was there reporting for a Las Raras’ story about a tsunami […]
“This is a binaural recording that sounds much better when listened to through headphones. It’s about minus 15 Celsius or 5 Fahrenheit, and the rink is full of skaters: young […]
“On my frequent walks across this meadow the skylarks always sing, rising vertically high into the air. On Sunday I set my phone down and walked away. They must have seen me […]
“Surprisingly, this sound is not rain. It was recorded under a patch of blue sky next to what I called “The Magical Dripping Tree”. You’re hearing massive drips from fog-soaked […]
“My housemate and I used our daily walk to explore the eerily empty city. We chanced across this patch of highly organised greenery and stood for a while enjoying the […]
“Lunch with my family has recently become a significant event. We try to elevate the household mood with delicious things, such as a gratin of courgettes, bacon with endives or […]
“After a few days of sunny weather, the clouds darkened in the morning and I anticipated rain. I grabbed my recorder and made my way into the shipping container which […]
“Back in Sept 2016 some friends and I took canoes down the Delaware Water Gap and camped on the islands in the middle of the big river. On the last night of […]
“On 4th May 2014 I spent the day getting lost around the CERN campus. A variety of electrical sonic interferences and pulses bounced around and interrupted my thoughts. Machines whirred […]
“Ten minutes of trees rustling, birds cheeping, dogs snuffling and people passing by while I hid in a tree on Hampstead Heath one morning as Britain headed into week 5 […]
“I stumbled into this church in the woods while walking near the Barataria Preserve, protected wetlands in southern Louisiana that are closed due to Covid. I keep coming back to […]
“On my exercise walk I paused for a few minutes. Glasgow has become my adopted city. Like many lacking a garden – we treat the parks like our own. In […]
“This is 11 minutes of my flatmate doing gardening while I was WFH in the garden next to him during self isolation. We live in North London in a little […]
“Part of the reserve is a former coal ash dumping ground produced by the Uskmouth power station, which still looms over the landscape. The sound of coal travelling up a […]
“I was in this tropical town in Colombia recording a story for Las Raras. And as usual, I recorded the soundscapes where the story took place. I got up really […]
“I was lost walking on the wrong side of the river in Chiang Mai when I found this glangy, metal footbridge that set me right. On the far side, there […]
“Cockatoos noisily roosting in bushland on the edge of Canberra’s inner suburbs, on a cold clear evening after two days of rain. A few walkers and cyclists pass. Three birds are […]
“After a rainstorm or a snowfall melts, this waterfall roars. I spent a few moments with my recorder trying to capture that roar, but after a couple of unsatisfying attempts, […]
“I was tired and needed space to myself. The wildness of nature often grounds me and so I left my family inside and stepped into my backyard. When I stepped outside […]
“The sky’s opened, the world ran for cover. But Chris, Chris lives for storms… he ran into the street and span. We looked on a while, Phil letting the accordion […]
“This is not a straightforward recording of a youth choir performing live but one muffled by a long corridor that leads to the stage, punctuated with raindrops outside.”
“Sitting by the marshes on the last day of the year. Noisy birdsong, the rumble of a nearby trainline, a tiny dog romping in jubilantly near the end. Still struggling […]
“On the 25th April we celebrate the 1974 Revolution that brought democracy to Portugal. Every year on this day people gather in the streets holding red carnations and shouting ’25th […]
“This is an ambisonics recording I made mid-December last year. I had just finished building a dobsonian telescope and I was down in Canberra visiting my folks for Christmas. Me […]
“Meiji Jingu is a well-known Shinto shrine located in the heart of Tokyo, near Harajuku. This recording was made early enough in the morning for the shrine’s approach to be placid […]
“I walked down past Abbey Road Studios yesterday around 5pm, and for the first time, I didn’t see a single tourist posing on the crossing. The sound of excitement in half a […]
“Recorded this morning on my daily dog walk with my 2 whippets, Sid & Stan… beside Stockers Lake Local Nature Reserve in Rickmansworth, Herts. It’s an old gravel pit and […]
“Now at 6pm, no one sings anymore. Maybe people have started to feel tired, I don’t know. But there is a guy, in a building close to mine, that plays […]
“I recorded this in a rare moment of quiet at a family reunion attended by more than 100 relatives in Saint Brian-sur-Mer in Brittany, France. My aunt was also taking […]
“All Czech borders with neighbouring countries have remained closed since the middle of March (precisely since the 14th of March). The only traffic allowed through/past are trucks transporting goods. These […]
“In December 2008 we were visiting my brother-in-law in the southeastern suburbs of Melbourne. There was a wetland in the park next to his house that had the most insane […]
“In 2013 the little mountain village of Longarone, in the Dolomiti Mountains in Veneto, Italy, celebrated the anniversary of the greatest natural disaster caused by human beings. 50 years before, […]
Sent on 23rd March 2020 “I woke up this morning, to find an email in my mailbox from a former source in Gaza. There was only one sentence in the message, ‘first Covid […]
“One of the my favorite features of Gooseberry Island – besides the beach of crushed pink shells on the north shore of Gumby’s Head and the two fire towers built […]
“Cairo is usually thought of as one of the busiest and most chaotic cities in the Arab world, and that is true. But many people are trying to escape the […]
“Hough End Clough (pronounced ‘huff end cloff’) is a thin strip of land between a main road and a police-dog kennel in south-central Manchester, UK, a between-space now nurtured by […]
“Katydids are the sound of summer for me. When I was growing up in North Carolina, these insects were the white noise machine that lulled me to sleep. Apparently they’re […]
“It’s approaching half past four in the morning and there’s a mist hanging over the valley. Nothing about this location – the woodland, the air dense with birdsong, the heavy […]
“St Leonards (or St Leonards-on-Sea) is a town in East Sussex, on the south coast of the UK. The beaches in this area are stabilised with groynes – low walls […]
“Every evening at dusk in late winter 2019, ten to twenty thousand starlings came home to roost after a spectacular murmuration which lasted for nearly an hour in the skies […]
“Recording with a hydrophone (an underwater microphone) can be hit and miss. Unlike recording the environment that surrounds us there is a higher degree of lucky dip (!) as you […]
“We can only hike in our own neighbourhood nowadays. The city of Ghent has a lot of beautiful nature to explore, but always surrounded by big roads or trainways. This […]
“On a bike tour in 2016, we found ourselves in the Nebrodi National Park in Eastern Sicily. There was a real feeling of freedom in loading up the bike with […]
“This was the sound I woke up to every morning in Beirut during 2018. What I admire about Beirut’s ambience are the roving street vendors. In the clip you’ll hear […]
“I attached my binaural earphone microphones to a hat, on the ground of the forest, to get the sound that blooming plants would hear (if they had ears like us). […]
“The famous lake where many chunks of ice drift to the sea from the Vatnajökull glacier. It was almost dark, nobody around and lots of wind. Closed eyes listening.” www.charocalvo.org
“Daily walk along the Neris River has been my only time outside since the announcement of quarantine nearly three weeks ago. Before it used to be relaxing. Now it’s a […]
“There’s an old tree near the railroad in Sergiyev Posad. It seems to be still alive but there are lots of hollows and cracks running through the bark. It sways […]
“This recording was taken at dawn this morning. The park is a former wasteland at the intersect between West and East Berlin which has now been reclaimed as an urban […]
“Up to 30,000 grey-headed flying foxes (fruit bats) roost in a colony at Yarra Bend Park, hanging from the eucalypts that flank the river. Nightly at dusk, they fly over and into Melbourne’s […]
“I recorded this just after sunrise this morning at the John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge.It’s a massive beautiful green space with all kinds of cool birds and turtles. Even after […]
“Hours before a snowstorm in the Sierra Nevada. All the aspen and willows are dormant now so the wind is mostly audible through the Ponderosa Pines.” www.filcorbitt.com
“Bit short but these are some teeny tiny REALLY LOUD frogs in Hilo, Hawaii. I recorded the frogs outside our room in a little B&B (run by a nice retired […]
“Sounds collected in Orleigh Park at dusk. Fruit bats, crows, cicadas, the ferry, scooters, bikes, dogs, joggers, walkers, talkers, local traffic and more flying foxes. Too loud in some parts. […]
“I made this recording on a perfect blue afternoon in August on Nantucket island, where I grew up. I’d come home for a friend’s wedding and was anticipating seeing an […]
“For this recording a friend and I were in a small clearing (field?) next to a tiny pond called Peanut Lake. The entire park overlooks downtown Los Angeles and the […]
“It’s a true dawn chorus with the drill of a woodpecker at the far corner of the wood or possibly in the gnarled old oak tree… one of the reminders […]
“Friday 13th. Standing on the street outside our hotel waiting to meet my dad. I hadn’t seen or talked to him for the last 15 years before this recording and […]
“Photo is the central square where I recorded it. I was there for the Prix Marulic festival, and I’d planned to be there again next month. Of course Covid has nixed […]
“Here’s the sound of Kilfinane waking up in the morning, recorded during HearSay Festival. One beautiful and quiet morning, I woke up early and took my Zoom to the highest […]
“It’s a steamy wet season evening. The neon clouds have faded to greyscale and a tropical storm is rolling through not so far from here. Nyah, 5 years old, has been eyeing […]
“In the late evening just as the sun sets in early spring, a male Eastern Meadowlark sings loudly while in the background, dozens of chorus frogs sing their gurgling trill.” […]
“I was on a small jetty for this one, so that I could record right over the shoreline and get all those beautiful little bay waves as they rolled up […]
“The voices you hear belong to wildlife biologist Stephen DeStefano and author Aminatta Forna, who was presenting a documentary we were making about Jack London (during which I broke my […]
“I went out this morning with Nathaniel’s Zoom which I obviously am not able to hold very quietly. (Meticulous field recordist, I am not!). Phin stayed back in bed, with […]
“I live in White Rock, Canada. Every morning and evening I head out to give my dog (and myself) some much-needed fresh air and as we wind our way through a […]
“At Yesnaby, the sandstone strata soften into whitewash – rippling out with the never-ending cycle of the tide. Gazing out to the horizon, it might be the edge of the […]
“This is the sound from Spitalfields, recorded from my balcony which doesn’t face onto the street. You can hear me sniffing because I am crying.” www.audreygillan.com
“Recorded in my garden at 7.15 in the morning during a time of self-isolation. The birds don’t care whose garden it is. It is their world really. They like it here. […]
“Although part of the Tokyo Metropolitan area, at night the meandering residential streets of Hachiōji city are hushed. Without fail, late summer in Japan brings the sound of crickets stridulating, […]
“You can hear frogs (I’m not sure which species. I call them pebble frogs because they sound like a pebble being dropped into a well) and wattle bird. It was […]
“This was recorded just after dusk at a campsite outside Zion National Park. I was on a camping trip with my dad and we stepped outside the tent to see […]
“It’s -20 degrees, and at first I can’t see anything in the blindingly white frozen world. After a minute, I start to make out the sprinkles of grey mountain rock […]
The applause and banging of pans which erupts every evening at 8pm out of the windows – for all the doctors, health care workers, and staff staying to help at […]
“This was recorded on Brighton Beach in a break from staying indoors and avoiding coronavirus. We did not socially distance ourselves from the sea.” www.martinzaltzaustwick.com
“Recorded in the late afternoon on the balcony of the Cinema Jenin Guest House, in the North of the West Bank. The famous cinema over the road, which the guesthouse […]
“400km due south from Warsaw is a hamlet called Jeżowa Woda near the highland market town of Limanowa. Nothing fancy, just a few houses perched on the side of a […]
“When we arrived at the old tea plantation in the rainforest it was pitch black and still but alive with the sound of insects. I set my alarm for 5am the […]
“Mont Royal is the city’s main park and namesake – we refer to it as ‘The Mountain’ but it’s more of a medium-sized hill. It overlooks the city, there’s a […]
“This is a recording of a late summer thunderstorm in the Hogsback mountains in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. It was Easter Sunday, 21 April 2019. The rain started […]
“Everyday at 6pm people go on their balconies or terraces and start singing. Everyday a different song, today was ‘Volare’ by Domenico Modugno. In this recording you can hear kids […]
“I took this recording in the baseball field at St. John’s Park in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. The first two minutes are in one of the dugouts where I played a […]
“This recording was made on the shore of El Combate, a beach in the Boquerón area of Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico. The recording is dated January 6th, which falls on […]
“Here is a recording I made recently while on an artist residency in Hill End in western NSW. Just under 5 hours west of Sydney. (Population 100 as well as a […]