Every flute on this album I hand made and includes single, double and triple flutes.

Breath of Life

Let Go

A lovely pre-dawn chorus in southwestern New Mexico, near the Gila and Aldo Leopold Wildernesses.  Features American Robin, Cordilleran Flycatcher, Mexican Spotted Owl, Common Nighthawk, Hermit Thrush, Mexican Whippoorwill, and listen close for the barking of the Elegant Trogon.  Much of this area was burned in a wildfire in 2022.

Rocky Canyon pre-dawn_150603

Demo playing for "Contact Mic Piano" preset for Decent Sampler.

To find out more about the project and free download the "Contact Mic Piano" preset visit,
https://www.pianobook.co.uk/packs/contact-mic-piano/

Contact Mic Piano v2 Demo

Library Demo: Okefenokee Swamp | Ambient Swamp Sounds

Bardo - Shakuhachi flute

It looked like it was going to be a lovely evening, so at 5.04pm I left for Ballinvally woods for the first time this year to see what it was like.  Arrived at 5.36pm.  I set up the Rode NTG-8 long gun mic.  Once I arrived, I stood about for a long time because in the distance a quad bike was roaring about, it sounded like someone was bringing in the cows for milking, finally this noise stopped, but then a tractor went by with two silage bales for the nearby farm, finally it went away, then the aircraft began.  It was nearly dark by the time I got to record a Songthrush when one sang high in a pine near me.  The nearby stream makes a lot of noise.  It was a cool calm dry evening.  Left for home at 7pm, by then it was nearly dark.  I stopped by the supermarket to get a few things.  Home at 7.50pm.  Recording 4381.

Songthrush - 27 Feb 2025 - Evening.  Ballinvally

Common Goldeneye on a noisy Saturday night next to a pond. Didn't see the birds - fascinating species who also make sounds with their wings that sounds like "ripping silk" 

Common Goldeneye

Imagine a place right here on Earth—not on Mercury or Venus—where it’s not particularly unusual for the summer temperature to soar to 180 degrees Fahrenheit (82 degrees C). Now imagine a 20-meter or 60-foot-tall building in that hellish place where ice can be safely stored, completely frozen, for the entire summer. Oh—I should also add that the building has no electricity and is made out of mud, goat hair, ash, and egg whites.

These buildings exist, and they’re called Yakhchals. They’re found in the Middle East, mostly in Iran, in places where it gets very cold in the winter, when ice can be made, and very hot in the summer. They’re a type of evaporative cooler—in the dry parts of the American south, a similar technology is called a swamp cooler—and these Yakhchals been in continuous use since at least the fourth-century BCE. 

Episode 284-Magical Yakhchals

I read something the other day that had a reference in it to a new book that had just come out. The book’s called, “Sing Like Fish,” and it’s written by author and science writer Amorina Kingdon. Needless to say, I immediately ordered the book, and I have to tell you, I burned through it in three days. The subtitle is, “How Sound Rules Life Underwater,” which you can imagine, as a wildlife sound recordist, really caught my attention. 

Actually, a few things in the book caught my attention, including this quote:

“For all the wonders and worries of this subject, the truth is that noise does not match the deep threat posed to the oceans by climate change. And yet, neither issue is monolithic or exists in a vacuum. Warming or acidifying waters will conduct sound differently: Sound’s effect on ecosystems like reefs or Arctic food webs will ricochet into animals’ responses to climate change.

Yet I believe that it is never a waste to examine the world though a new lens, through a new sense.”

That’s powerful writing. So, as I tend to do, I went looking for the author, and I found her north of the border in British Columbia. Amorina and I had a nice chat, discovered that we have a lot of common interests, including, of all things, the acoustic work done by Bell Laboratories, and she agreed to be on the program. Our conversation wandered all over the landscape—I recorded more than three hours of tape—but I edited it down to the most important points. Here's Amorina.

Episode 286-Conversation with Science Writer Amorina Kingdon

At the dog walk one morning, I passed a group of trees squeaking in the wind.
Later that day, I returned with gear: recording the sound inside the trunk using a Stille & Klang contact mic, while simultaneously capturing the outside with a LOM Uši.
In post, I gently balanced the two channels—nothing added.
The first half of the track blends both recordings; the second half isolates the contact mic signal.

In- and outside trees

Recorded in late May, 2018. Springtime dawn chorus in Minnesota's Chippewa National Forest.

Dawn Chorus - Fiske Clearing

All albums available for "Name Your Price" on BandCamp (personal listening use only). Please contact me for creative and commercial licensing through my website acousticnature.com

Library Demo: Okefenokee Swamp | Ambient Swamp Sounds

Jared Blake