An abstract response to my Northern Irish homeland: emotion and memory.

Following a walk around Drumnaph Wood (Maghera, Co. Londonderry) in early 2019, I found myself composing a scene. It was/is a half-imagined winter thawing: low-lying sun illuminating an ancient Hazel tree, burning across frosted bark and moss, warming it through to the heartwood.

The contours of this scene—colour, texture and depth—are articulated here, as the boughs of the Hazel gently creak in the wind.

•

‘The Sunlit Thawing’ was realised in the Electroacoustic Music Studios at the University of Birmingham between April and August 2019, with support from the Midlands4Cities Doctoral Training Partnership (AHRC).

No AI software of any kind was used to compose ‘The Sunlit Thawing’. All ideas, sounds, audio processes and written notes are the unique creative output of the recordist/composer.

Piece notes revised and updated October 2025.

Image credit:
National Gallery of Art, CC0, Wikimedia Commons

The Sunlit Thawing

Single branch, on edge of River Severn. 

South-westerly winds; internal vibrations.

Jagged, rotten bark. Decaying sapwood; cross-sectional transition to sodden heartwood. 

Partial and complete submergence. Envelopment of flaked bark fragments. Glimpses of reeds and shoreline during incoming tidal flow.

Decomposition processes.

Common Woodlouse, Brown Centipede and White-legged Snake Millipede. Larvae of Deathwatch, Stag, Lesser Stag and Red-headed Cardinal Beetles.

Invertebrate palps, mandibles, antennae, body segments, wings, elytra and mucous membranes.

Larval stages, egg casing friction and arthropod communications.

Closing descent towards dense mud.

•

‘Deadwood’ was realised in the Electroacoustic Music Studios at the University of Birmingham between September 2018 and January 2019, with support from the Midlands4Cities Doctoral Training Partnership (AHRC).

No AI software of any kind was used to compose ‘Deadwood’. All ideas, sounds, audio processes and written notes are the unique creative output of the recordist/composer.

This track is a stereo mixdown of the original eight-channel composition. Piece notes revised and updated October 2025.

Image Credit: 
Janson, E. W. [Public domain], Wikimedia Commons

Deadwood

Machair (Scots Gaelic; approx. pronunciation ‘máh-hur’). Noun [mass noun]. Fertile, wildflower-rich grassland habitat found on the north-western coastlines of Scotland and Ireland.

Five sonic impressions, drawn from field recordings made around the Hebridean Island of South Uist, Scotland in August 2019:

I.
Open grassland, from Daliburgh to Askernish.

II.
Internal structural vibrations of Spear Thistle, Greater Burdock, Common Ragwort and Yorkshire Fog Grass.

III.
Great Yellow Bumblebee queen (reconstructed nest interior).

IV.
Great Yellow Bumblebee mating activity (reconstructed nest entrance).

V.
North Atlantic surf, near the ancient burial grounds at Cladh Hallan.

•

‘Machair Impressions’ was realised in the Electroacoustic Music Studios at the University of Birmingham between November 2019 and February 2020, with support from the Midlands4Cities Doctoral Training Partnership (AHRC). Additional fieldwork funding was provided by the Midlands4Cities Student Development Fund.

The piece features detailed recordings of Great Yellow Bumblebee mating activity, encountered when gathering compositional source materials around South Uist in August 2019. Based on extensive post-fieldwork checks with leading wildlife sound practitioners, archivists and conservation experts, these recordings were likely the first of their kind for the species, whose UK distribution (at the time of writing) is largely confined to the north-west Scottish coast.

Thanks to Darryl Cox, Helen King, Barnaby Smith and Gill Perkins at the Bumblebee Conservation Trust, whose support was vital during planning and fieldwork. Special thanks to local guide Bill Neill for field recording assistance on South Uist.

No AI software of any kind was used to compose ‘Machair Impressions’. All ideas, sounds, audio processes and written notes are the unique creative output of the recordist/composer.

Piece notes revised and updated October 2025.

Image Credit:
Wikimedia Commons

Machair Impressions

Hollow interior. The whole tree juddering as the wind pulls it back and forth by the branches. Eurasian Wren; Common Chiffchaff; a pair of Common Buzzards over the woodland canopy. New creaks and old creaks; new growth and old growth. Freshly grown spring leaves. A portrait of landscape, from the tree’s own body.

•

‘Oak Trunk’ was realised in the composer’s private studio between March and July 2020, with support from the Midlands4Cities Doctoral Training Partnership (AHRC).

No AI software of any kind was used to compose ‘Oak Trunk’. All ideas, sounds, audio processes and written notes are the unique creative output of the recordist/composer.

Piece notes revised and updated October 2025.

Image credit:
National Gallery of Art, CC0, Wikimedia Commons

The Habitats Suite — I. Oak Trunk

Recollections from a Cotswold woodland. Sycamore trees in fog, heavy with condensation; leaves bending, thick drops rolling off them as a kind of half-rain. Tawny Owls and Common Pheasants, louder than expected. An evening shower moves through. It is a scene of shelter and delicate interplay, infused with the smells of damp earth.

•

‘Woodland Understorey’ was realised in the composer’s private studio between March and July 2020, with support from the Midlands4Cities Doctoral Training Partnership (AHRC).

No AI software of any kind was used to compose ‘Woodland Understorey’. All ideas, sounds, audio processes and written notes are the unique creative output of the recordist/composer.

Piece notes revised and updated October 2025.

Image credit:
Heath, Francis George [Public Domain], Wikimedia Commons

The Habitats Suite — II. Woodland Understorey

An environmental cross-section of pond sediment, providing a composed perspective from a chosen depth of 1.24 metres.

Here, along the lower edges of the shallows, curious tadpoles investigate our ‘microphone’. Small rocks move and jostle together, shifted by invisible currents. Water Mint gently bubbles as it photosynthesises. A single female Mallard calls from the surface. Everything here is in delicate transition, barely noticed.

An imploding bubble ends our reverie.

•

‘Pond Sediment’ was realised in the composer’s private studio between March and July 2020, with support from the Midlands4Cities Doctoral Training Partnership (AHRC).

No AI software of any kind was used to compose ‘Pond Sediment’. All ideas, sounds, audio processes and written notes are the unique creative output of the recordist/composer.

Piece notes revised and updated October 2025.

Image credit:
Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium, Maria Sibylla Merian [Public Domain], Wikimedia Commons

The Habitats Suite — III. Pond Sediment

In the shallows of the Irish coast, breaking waves and swirling currents bubble and coil through dense kelp. A Common Raven passes, muted by the water. Greylag Geese trace a flight path directly beneath United Airlines UA2789 (Frankfurt to Houston), moving purposefully. Composed and juxtaposed vectors, drawn from the field.

•

‘Seabed’ was realised in the composer’s private studio between March and July 2020, with support from the Midlands4Cities Doctoral Training Partnership (AHRC).

No AI software of any kind was used to compose ‘Seabed’. All ideas, sounds, audio processes and written notes are the unique creative output of the recordist/composer.

Piece notes revised and updated October 2025.

Image credit:
Glaucus, or, The wonders of the shore / by Charles Kingsley [Public Domain], Wikimedia Commons

The Habitats Suite — IV. Seabed

My memory is of reeds in a slowly seeping tide; thick clay, barely a morning (or anything). A thousand-year grey air pushed through tall stems, until the water sank down to the mud roots.

•

‘Mud Roots’ was realised in the Electroacoustic Music Studios at the University of Birmingham between July and September 2019, with support from the Midlands4Cities Doctoral Training Partnership (AHRC).

No AI software of any kind was used to compose ‘Mud Roots’. All ideas, sounds, audio processes and written notes are the unique creative output of the recordist/composer.

Piece notes revised and updated October 2025.

Image credit:
Weaver, John E.  [Public Domain], Wikimedia Commons

Mud Roots

Reflections and re-imaginings from Talisker Bay Beach, Isle of Skye:

Incoming tide.

Microscopic seaweed textures and suspended sand particles. Enclosed pools, wrought amongst saltwater rock. Jellyfish propulsion mechanisms. Feeding processes of Common Limpets, crabs and snapping shrimp. Surface glimpses of Anthus petrosus, foraging between waves.

Ancient volcanic activity and deep tectonic shifts.

Lines of ancestral connection between past and present shores.

•

‘Shorelines’ was realised in the Electroacoustic Music Studios at the University of Birmingham between December 2018 and March 2019, with support from the Midlands4Cities Doctoral Training Partnership (AHRC).

No AI software of any kind was used to compose ‘Shorelines’. All ideas, sounds, audio processes and written notes are the unique creative output of the recordist/composer.

This track is a stereo mixdown of the original eight-channel composition. Piece notes revised and updated October 2025.

Image credit:
G. B. Sowerby [III] lith. [Public domain], Wikimedia Commons

Shorelines

Mark Ferguson is a wildlife sound recordist. His work draws attention to the sonic nuances of animal behaviour and the fascinating audible relationships between humans, wild species and their shared environments. He is currently based in Northern Ireland, where he spends most of his time documenting the habitats and hidden stories of his native Ulster countryside.

Mark Ferguson

Popular tracks