Blackbird subsong

Tawny owls' midnight calls at the hidden disappearing lake valley, surrounded by deep forests.

Midnight Spooky Owls - Cerknica Lake, Slovenia 19.8.2025

MORE JET$ IN THE AIR!
MORE JET$ IN THE AIR!

WE DON’T BLOODY CARE
AS LONG AS PROFIT’$ THERE!

HO HO! HO HO!
PACK YOUR BAG$
OFF YOU GO!
HERE’$ YOUR TICKET
YOU CAN $TICK IT!

MORE JET$ IN THE AIR!

HO HO! HO HO!
MILLIONAIRE!
BILLIONAIRE!

MORE JET$ IN THE AIR!

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According to FlightRadar24's aviation statistics, in August 2025 the highest daily seven-day moving average of global flights was 259,858, with the actual number of flights peaking on 7th August 2025 with 276,831 in one day. As you will see from the graph in the track image, cited from FlightRadar24's 2025 statistics (covering January to August 2025), the number of daily flights just keeps increasing... And we keep hearing of new international runways and terminals being planned and built in many countries and cities.
____________________________

This recording was made on Wednesday 19th August 2025 in a eucalypt forest in the foothills of Adelaide, just three kilometres (approximately two miles) from where I live, during mid afternoon. A pair of Clippy EM172 omni microphones, plugged into a Zoom F3, were clipped onto tree twigs and left alone while I continued walking, enjoying a sunny winter's afternoon stroll, surrounded by numerous familiar species of local native birds. And, of course, numerous jets.

Some might say, "Well, the birds and other native animals carry on their lives, despite the noise and all that goes with it. So what's the problem?" Yes, indeed, they do, as best they can, because they must, and have no other choice, unless or until they become endangered or extinct; and so do we, because we, too, must, and have no other choice. But isn't THAT precisely the fundamental problem? To put it quite bluntly: aren't we being forced to live - to survive - under the rule of a kind of environmentally toxic fascism, dictated by an inflexible, irrational, and insensitive political economy?

I believe wholeheartedly in a free world. But I absolutely do not endorse the ancient lie that 'justice is the advantage of the stronger', and that those who have contrived economic, political, military, financial and cultural advantage have the putative right to tell us what 'justice' is, and to tell us what we are required, even against our wills, to suffer, in order that their own 'advantage' rules. Nor do I believe that - let's say, for the sake of the argument - if one million people are persuaded to subscribe to, support, and hence also enjoy the ample benefits of, such an irrational and unjust political economy, that the objection of one thousand, or even one hundred, or even one dozen, unpersuaded people who disagree with and reject that way of being and doing things for fundamentally valid and true reasons should be overruled and subjected, merely on the basis of a numerical count! A 'majority' is not necessarily 'right', merely by being a 'majority'!

Let's not forget that Hitler was voted into power 'democratically' by a majority of voters. As Hitler recognised, very early in the game, the simplistic concept and system of 'democracy' can be very conveniently and readily manipulated by persuasion through ideology and mass media. 'Democracy' and 'Fascism' do not necessarily stand in logical opposition. When hegemonists and dictators cannot control by persuasion, they will resort to force. And vice versa. No one has yet resolved the fundamental problem of how to actualise a genuinely 'free society'... And what, indeed, IS a 'genuinely free society'...?

2025.08.19 MORE JET$ IN THE AIR!

Night Soundscape captured by DPA 5100, mixed down to stereo

Night Soundscape at USJ 2 garden

Projekt 4 - 2025-08-21 14.25

Mole cricket or European NightJar
This was recorded at island Srakane on kayak trip in October 2023- Small waves on small beach. 
Sennheiser MKH40 and Zoom F6 recorder.

Adriatic Islands Ambience - Mole Cricket Or NightJar  at night small beach

This was the first time I could listen to a longer sequence of ants stridulating in their nest – and I was and am totally fascinated by these really weird sounds. Of course, there is also a lot of crawling und running going on....
Recorded in the German Alps (Allgäu) with JrF ecoutic microphone into Leaf Audio field amp into Mixpre 6ii

Stridulating ants

Just a calm river that I like to listen to....
Clippies EM 272 in AB, Zoom F3

River Vils in the German Alps (Allgäu)

This is a bit from overnight unattended recording. I woke up with uneasy feeling as the sound resembled Shahed drone sounds I have heard from youtube videos. It was still pretty dark (4:50 AM).  

Drone sound in the night

The other day, when I was out exploring in the woods with my 9 year old daughter she asked: “What does in sound like inside a spruce cone?” I was quite proud of her at that moment….and of course, we had to find the answer. So we laid a cone in the sunshine, poked the mic in and found this delightful gentle hidden sound….
Recorded with JrF ecoutic microphone into leaf audio field amp into mixpre 6ii


Spruce cone gently opening in the sunshine

(2005) Yo, I don’t even know what to say... I made this beat and thought about you today... It’s been a long time since I seen you last... It’s like time move too fast to keep ya grasp...


Kev Brown • Albany

Field sound recordist and archivist of vanishing sounds in natural Iandscapes. Highly commended in the Sound of the Year Awards 2024 - Best Natural Sound.

Blackbird subsong

Bo Söderström