a sound collage of one of the last hot days of Summer 2022 spent  listening to bugs and watching a huge storm consume Montréal from afar.

location: Parc Frédéric-Back

Heat Death

Dawn on 1st May, recorded on a small wetland by my cabin in the Black River Valley, Sweden. Mix of wetland and forest birds.

Dawn Black River Valley Sweden

Salvaging some modular sounds -- T&MMM.   Headphones are best.

Bricolage II

Very heavy rain, thunder (CA 08  ORTF)

The EM-272 stereo pair placed in midst of the grouse lek, 32 bit float to mp3. The females cackling away and the males displaying around them. In the end of the recording domestic reindeer arrives the scene and the birds depart.

Black grouse Lek Northern Norway April 2023

I was lucky to visit Xinjiang back in 2011. This recording is from Tianchi Lake, situated at an altitude of 1900m above sea level. It is an alpine glacial lake surrounded by montane forests. It is also a major national tourist attraction, one of the AAAAA (5A) areas area of outstanding beauty designated by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. It’s essentially an area prepared for mass tourism, which in china means big numbers.

However, a short walk up the forested slopes and away from the main visitor centres there is tranquillity to be found. And that is where I recorded this summer soundscape with playful nutcrackers.

Main Species: Spotted Nutcracker (Nucifraga caryocatactes) 
Background whistling: Black Kites (Milvus migrans)
Habitat: Alpine Forest
Location: Tianchi Lake, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, PRC
Time and date: 13 July 2010, 11am

Gear: (Associate links)
Fostex Fr2-LE
Rode Nt4 https://amzn.to/4bcROVi 
Nikon D40 https://amzn.to/4dedVMC

Nutcrackers of Tianchi Lake

Geophones, hydrophones, contact mic and 6 omnidirectional microphones

Notes
As the light diminished, the volcanic palette undergoes a kaleidoscopic transformation, revealing an iridescence a spectral shimmering.

The sands embody the ethereal interplay of otherworldly pigments that defy earthly conventions.
Listening with multispecies ecologies: volcanic rock pools teeming with life , hermit crabs, Black Sea urchin, Goby and Shrimp, with tides crashing nearby. Human perception and language too limited to describe these multiplicitous worlds.

Using  geophones to  convert ground movement (velocity) into voltage, in attempt to pick up subterranean vibrations. The deviation of this measured voltage from the base line is called the seismic response and is analysed for structure of the earth.
In this majestic Canary Islands. We discovered alien, enigmatic volcanic landscapes, lava fields and magical caves and art by Cesar Manrique. An island carved and shaped with creativity and art.

Speculative Field Trip: Timanfaya National Park in Lanzarote

Lift off! This was spectacular beyond what I could have imagined. The starling murmuration at the Avalon Marshes in Somerset. Hundreds of thousands of birds departing from their roost on the reed beds. The numbers are hard to comprehend. First the silence - a timid chorus at this time of year - then the starlings start to chatter. Suddenly there is a build up of rumbling bass, like wind hitting the microphone or something about to erupt. Then the waves across the field, like ocean waves in the distance, both visually and sonically. And the lift off. The rumble becomes a satisfying silky carpet enveloping you overhead.

This repeats 3-4 times as different waves of departing starlings take flight. MAGICAL.

I edited 30 seconds at the end from when they've all left, to give perspective, so you can appreciate the decibels such a gathering produces.

Location: Shadwick Heath, Somerset, UK
Date and time: 25 February 2024, 7am
Habitat: Reed beds, Flooded plains

Gear (Associate Links):
Sound Devices 744T
Sennheiser MKH8060 and MKH30 in Mid-Side rig.
Nikon Z6-II https://amzn.to/4aWjeyZ
Sigma 24-70mm F2.8 DG OS HSM https://amzn.to/4bmU24t
Sigma 70-200 F2.8 https://amzn.to/3Wpdrxu

Starling Murmuration Dawn Lift-Off

I recorded our local Pipistrelle bats from my back garden last night - both 'common' and 'soprano' varieties.  It wasn't until I listened to my recordings this morning that I realised I had also captured the sound of a passing Noctule bat too! A real delight to hear one flying high overhead.  Bats make sounds too high in frequency for humans to hear - so the recordings need to be processed - usually in one of two ways.  Hetrondyne mixing - to shift the pitch of the sounds down in frequency to something that humans can hear. Or, 'time expansion' - basically stretching out the 'best bits' of the sounds in the time domain by slowing them right down.  Time expansion is similar to what is sometimes now called 'granular processing'. I used some of my 'music processing' equipment to process these sounds - once I had made a small library of the bat sound samples that I liked.  I turned it into a 10 minute 'symphony' using a variety of tape loops, pitch-shifting, granular synthesis, delays and a little bit of reverb.  I'm still experimenting with the mix between 'light touch' processing of my field sound recordings and something a bit more 'musical' - You might hear a hint of  a I–V–vi–IV chord progression of the Noctule towards the end of this symphony!  Recorded using an an Echo Touch Pro 2 microphone at 384 kHz (samples per second).  Equipment used for sound processing included a Chase Bliss Habit and Mood MK II, together with a Hologram Electronics Microcosm looper 'effects pedal'. Some reverb was added via both the Mood and Microcosm. No DAW was used - I mixed it all 'live' from the clips chopped on my Koala sampler. Simples! 
Photo of a nearby tree, taken in 720nm infrared.

Bat Symphony

extract from de music CD "winter landscape" - Improvisation music project by Alessandro Olla and Paolo Sanna 

winter landscape_06

The first track I ever made on a computer - which to my utter amazement was played on John Peel

Track 2 on played on John Peel

Hi, I'm Angel, a Sound Artist and Field Recordist. I draw inspiration from the natural world for my work. I run SoundArk, offering Audio Production and Post Production services. I am based in the United Kingdom, and have been lucky to travel the world through my trade.

www.soundarkstudios.com
contact@soundarkstudios.com - angel@soundarkstudios.com - angel.perezgrandi@gmail.com
Instagram & Twitter: @SoundArkStudios 
#SoundDesign #SoundEffects #AudioPostProduction #FilmSoundDesigner
#FieldRecording #WildlifeSound #WildlifeSoundRecordist #LocationAudio #LocationSound #Filmmaking #GameAudio

Nutcrackers of Tianchi Lake

SoundArk. | Ángel Pérez Grandi

Recent comments

SoundArk. | Ángel Pérez Grandi

Related tracks