Good headphones are recommended, as this is a binaural recording.

Black Swans amongst Australian Shelducks. Also, Grey Teals, Silver Gulls, Pacific Black Ducks, among others. An excerpt from a longer recording made between around 03:00 to 04:00, long before first light, in the Coorong region, near Narrung. Recent heavy rains inland have brought much fresh water downriver, reducing the salinity of the Coorong waters and adjacent lakes, which has resulted in a blessed influx of birds. The location of the recording is at least 15 kilometres from the Coorong, but traces of the Coorong's signature relentless deep roar are audible from here.

Recorded on land of the Ngarindjerri people that is now either National Park or privately owned pastoral land.

2022.02.20 Black Swans. Coorong. Night. Late Summer.

Boarding Time by @atmosphare

Cover artwork by Anthony Asher Yates
Mastering by Seth Bellow

Boarding Time

Atmøsphäre - Boarding Time

King Imagine: bamboo chimes - elotronix - 
Bruno Gussoni: shakuhachi

King Imagine & Bruno Gussoni - Wind In Bamboo Country

Pathways

Whitelabrecs label owner Harry Towell is perhaps best renowned for his long-standing Spheruleus project, with a discography listing releases on Lost Tribe Sound, Home Normal, Time Released Sound, Hibernate and Eilean, as well as his collaborations alongside Sven Laux, Guy Gelem, Ekca Liena and more. Harry returns to his own label, following 2021’s ‘Canvas Homes + Supplémentaires’ and EPs ‘Absent Frames’ and ‘Inaugurate’, in this special collaborative album called ‘Petrologist’s Lens’.

January is a month we usually reserve for a compilation album, such as our Sleeplaboratory series. This year Harry decided to invite 12 artists who had contributed more than 2 releases on Whitelabrecs to submit a short sketch or sample, and then he developed these into the tracks that make up this album. As with some of his more recent work, this album is created under his own name, but with ‘& friends’ added to credit the label artists and good friends which he has worked alongside.

The title ‘Petrologist’s Lens’ nods to the concept of this body of work, which is rooted in the ancient geological history of the earth. Harry studied the land history of the areas where his collaborators reside, to help form a title for each piece. Tracks are named after particular fragments of rock or sediments, land regions or fossils for example, and the compositions were developed in a way which mimics the layering of these. The layers tell a story, giving clues of how they came to be. Sonically, filigree details and eroded tape textures ride waves of modern classical orchestration, ambient drones and electronics.

The packaging for this release features cover artwork by Soraya Kornblum, an art student in Adrian Lane’s class, submitted to Whitelabrecs as part of a school project. Each of the 200 editions include a 16 page booklet with words provided by Neil McRoberts, who transcribed his thoughts after listening to the music and reflecting on the concept. Physical copies are split into two runs; a standard gold disc version and a special marble print deluxe edition.

Credits:
Written and produced by Harry Towell
Additional production and inspiration provided by Adrian Lane, Andrew Heath, Blochemy, Edu Comelles, Glåsbird, Guy Gelem, James Edward Armstrong, Paweł Pruski, Phil Tomsett, Polaroid Notes, Simon McCorry, Sven Laux

Mastered by James Edward Armstrong
Cover Art by Soraya Kornblum
Booklet Notes by Neil McRoberts
Art and Design by Andrew Heath

Petrologist's Lens

wlr127 Harry Towell & Friends - Petrologist's Lens

Take a listen to a 4 minute overnight journey through an Australian forest. This short compilation was taken during a long 18 hour recording session deep in the Australian forest. It starts at about 4pm, and finishes about 10am the next day. The recording starts with bees nearby in the undergrowth, followed by bird life as the light fades into night. The tropical rain starts about 1130pm and continues all night, creating a magical dance on the leaves and stones covering the ground.

The laughing Kookaburra wakes first and announces the first glimmer of light on the horizon just as the rain starts to fade away, followed by many more birds calling and chatting to their mates. 

The bees finally wake up and end the recording very busy... just like they did the previous day. The circle of life in about 4 minutes. Enjoy the immensely gorgeous cacophony of the Australian forest.

Captured on a Zoom F3, with Em272 Clip mics.

Australian Forest Life

A recent Spring Dawn in the Queets Rainforest inside the Olympic National Park
The air is cool and the light is filtered through a canopy of Sitka Spruce and Douglas Fir, Pacific Chorus Frogs crowded in an ephemeral wet-spot seemingly don't know if it's day or night as they sing around the clock here. The river sounds like a soft pillow in the distance, a dull roar that is more comforting than disturbing, fading away behind a biophonic meditation.

As twilight dawns with First light, local birds join the the chorus with the frog. Varied Thrushes with their nasally mysterious alarm-like cry. Pacific Wrens who seemingly believe that everyone needs to hear what they have to say. Song Sparrows with some of the happiest song ever to delight. A Chestnut-backed Chickadee that inspects the microphones, pulling little tufts of the wind protection to pad a nest. Northern Flickers and Chipmunks compete to see who has the best chatter.

All the while, the frogs continue on in cycles of chorused and cycles of silence, punctuated only by the occasional encounter trill or inquiring contact croak.

Northwest Soundscapes

Queets Rainforest, Vernal Dawn Chorus With Frogs

Skylark singing on a windy day, hidden somewhere within the reeds of Rye Nature Reserve in summer 2014. 

These unassuming little brown birds have quite the stamina. 

I'd suggest they'd take a break sometime, as even well after most other songbirds have either buggered off to Africa or are simply done singing their hearts out, these ones still carry on undisturbed with their mentally complex, hyper-speed and awesome songs. 

Telinga Universal MK2 with Sennheiser MKH8040, Tascam DR680 + Sound Devices USBPre2, 96khz/24bit.

Skylark singing in the reeds

A series of recordings made on the occasion of the 2015 Soundcamp for the 24 hour Reveil global dawn chorus braodcast. Our Soundcamp was coordinated by Dawn Scarfe and Veljo Runnel and included guests from the Active Crossover residency. Special thanks to the Palupõhja Nature School for hosting us. Palupõhja is a small village on the Emajõgi river in the center of the Alam-Pedja nature reserve.
http://www.soundtent.org/2015/streams/streams_2015_UTC+2_estonia.html
http://moks.ee/artists/active-crossover-mooste
http://www.palupohja.ee/en

Blackbird and dawn chorus, Palupõhja May03, 2015

striped marsh frogs/northern banjo frog/aquatic life
wet season in the kroombit mountains, qld
february, 2016

Morning Chorus: Above and below a creek in the Kroombit mountains

Species: great tit, song thrush, great spotted woodpecker (drumming), middle spotted woodpecker, Eurasian nuthatch, carrion crow, Eurasian blue tit, Eurasian blackcap, grey-headed woodpecker, Eurasian treecreeper, common wood pigeon, common starling, common pheasant, mallard, mute swan, common chiffchaff, stock dove, marsh tit.

Location: Plačkův les (floodplain forest), Dawn Chorus, Czech Republic
Date: 2. 4. 2017
Starting of recording: 6.13h
Temperature: 8-10 C
Photographer: Dr. Julius Klejdus

Dawn Chorus - Plačkův les

Sound designer, wildlife/nature sound recordist, and qualified southern African (FGASA Level 1) nature guide.

Skylark singing in the reeds

Daan Hendriks

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