During spring of 2021, I spent 5 nights camping in and recording the Chattahoochee National Forest in Georgia (4/18 - 4/23). Specifically, I was at the Lake Conasauga overflow campground.

Lake Conasauga is an artificial lake that is very popular with fishing people and camping families. Due to this popularity, I knew before I arrived that I didn't want to camp on the lake itself. As predicted, the lake was very busy (noisy) with people during my stay.

The overflow campground was quiet, empty, and was the location of the songbird trailhead; a trail leading to a mountain pond created by beavers. The area around the pond is managed by the Forest Service for bird diversity.

This trip was the longest period I've ever gone with zero human interaction in my life. From Sunday evening to Friday afternoon, the only people I saw were driving by the campground on the gravel road, and even then there were few vehicles. 

This area within the Chattahoochee blessed me with so many amazing experiences and sounds. By my last day I was filled with so much love and appreciation for the land. I've never felt more connected with our planet.

Please enjoy this presentation of one of the most peaceful places on Earth. Thank you for listening, until later ☼

Beaver Bubbles, Tail Slap And Talking (2:37am) - D100 w/SASS

Quiet midnight campfire on the Oregon coast with waves and frogs in the background. Stereo recording, use headphones

Midnight campfire on the Oregon coast

I performed a Mid-Side test by inserting a Primo EM283 figure-eight microphone and a PUI AOM 5024 omnidirectional microphone into a 53 cm diameter parabolic dish.

MID - SIDE AOM5024 + EM283 figure 8 Parabolic Microphone Blackcap Song

WalkingSteps

Echoing through a flooded cypress tree forest, first a Barred Owl hoots, and then joins a second to fuss back and forth. Deep voiced Pig Frogs and shrill crickets are a sonic backdrop. Big Cypress National Preserve, Florida, August 2022, recorded with Usi Pro omni pair and Zoom F3 recorder.

Owl Swamp

Rain In Valcerina

I sat with the forest. I sat far farther back from the overlooking edge seen in this photo. I didn't watch, I only listened.
I was deeply touched by the inexorable reality that, 'before' and 'after', which are but an imagination, nothing whatsoever had changed; nothing whatsoever COULD change. Business will grind on as usual, of course.
In the recording, if you listen from beginning to end, the sounds will tell the truth: both metaphorically, metaphysically, and quite literally.
Whatever will be 'new' - truly, existentially 'new' - must come, and can ONLY come, fundamentally, from us: our own minds, our own actions, our own ways of being.

Related yet unrelated track: https://soundcloud.com/hearingbeings/20191231-to-20200101-small-city-new-year-as-heard-from-far-away

2022.12.31 - 2023.01.01. What the Forest Heard.

(Best listened to with good quality headphones, in a quiet environment, at low to mid volume. Be warned: the dynamics occasionally explode, particularly in the form of Black-winged Currawongs.)

This recording is an early result of experimenting with a pair of omnidirectional and a pair of supercardioid microphones in parallel. The omnis absorb the environing atmospheric ambience, the supercardioids capture a selective and narrower focus of detail. (No processing.)

2023.01.08 Awakening Pine Forest. First Light. Summer.

Wood Thrush// 220426// some handling and anthropophonic noise// recorded by pointing the built-in mics at a bird singing from a tree nearby.

Wood Thrush

Fox Barking

An evening at the local wetland, punctuated by a symphony of spring peepers and an occasional round of applause from the resident beavers.

Interlude - Beavers And Peepers

All albums available for "Name Your Price" on BandCamp (personal listening use only). Please contact me to license my recordings.

Beaver Bubbles, Tail Slap And Talking (2:37am) - D100 w/SASS

Jared Blake

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