Borneo 2020

The soundscape in the Borneo rainforest is incredibly lush and varied. Most birds stop singing at night, but that's when insects and frogs take over. Longer version at https://youtu.be/HDrUq-eF_ZA

Night In The Borneo Jungle

It's a calm day at Maliau Basin in Sabah, Malaysia. The dawn chorus is a distant memory and birds seem to be calling for the sheer pleasure of it. Insects dominate the soundscape though with their loud and constant chorus. Longer version at https://youtu.be/a0ORDlC7DkM

Lazy afternoon in Borneo

Thunderstorms sound absolutely fascinating in the rainforest as the microphones pick up the beautiful detail of water droplets hitting the vegetation. Longer version at https://youtu.be/MN_JT6hAyMs

Thunderstorm in the Borneo rainforest

The Empress cicada starts calling as the sun sets, just as daytime birds are winding down their calls and nighttime creatures are waking up. You first hear distant ones, and it almost sounds like some industrial metal cutting process. Long version at https://youtu.be/6ZPDYlvj7MM

The weird sound of the Empress cicada

From my 3-track EP "Vieux piano endormi".
Full album here:
attentionfete.bandcamp.com/album/vieux…ano-endormi

Magical Music

When you're walking in a lush jungle it's very easy to miss small things like termites, ants, snakes or a gorilla (that totally happened by the way). Long version at https://youtu.be/WQa2E4iAnWQ

Dusk in the rainforest

Fossil Hunting Collective is musician and sound artist Jamie Jones, from Guelph in Canada who has been active under this artist name since 2019. He has previously released music on labels such as Ambientologist, ROHS, Polar Seas and Rusted Tone Recordings across this project name and as (ph)authers (alongside Hymns57) and Still Harbours (with Brad Deschamps). Followers of our discography may also recall 2020’s contribution to our Home Diaries series, entitled ‘Aperture’. 

‘Cyanotype’ was made primarily, via the beautiful surprises thrown out of various guitar pedals along with re-amped loops played back through old cassette recorders. Whilst virtual plugins are also used throughout the process, Jones places an emphasis on the physical too, with his small body acoustic guitar strung with nylons, a Jazzmaster guitar, a baritone ukulele and reel to reel tape. The sound is a heady blend of melancholy, nostalgic and life-affirming movements, using droning texture, tape decay and loosely performed instrumentation to tell dreamy stories.

The theme for this album was born out of the emotions that Jones pours into his music, as he contemplates the day-to-day struggles of his daughter Hunter, who has been Type 1 Diabetic for the last two years of their life. This autoimmune disease can be life-threatening if not managed correctly and around 95% of Jones’ headspace is occupied with worry, as follows strict procedures to count carbohydrates, weigh out food and monitor blood sugar metrics to ensure that his daughter does not become hypoglycaemic, which could lead to a coma. Controlling this disease is a full-time job and one which Jones carries the weight of at all times. The worry, care and withered energy levels mean that these emotions surface their way into the music, when he sits down in his studio late at night.

The album is a homage to what Hunter must go through each day of their life, living with Type 1 Diabetes.  No child or parent should have to go through this. No child should need to understand how it all works, but they are forced to wonder ‘why me’.  On top of the weight of the emotional trauma, there is a physical trauma that comes with being injected with devices and life-saving medication numerous times a day, until a cure can be found. Jones and his family are keen to remind themselves when they can, that the disease does not define the being, and they still celebrate all the positive splendour life can offer. These tracks are an emotional journey of the day-to-day; there is the good and the bad, days of hope and wonder, days of melancholy and sadness.  Above all, they are not alone in this fight, and they all work together as a unit, protecting their family bond fiercely, like bees.

At an age of around 18 months, Hunter adopted the nickname ‘B’, after being so enthralled with their bee costume for Halloween that they continued to wear on many occasions afterwards. The track titles for this album are all influenced by bee related terminology but also, in some cases there are double meanings, such as ‘Apiary’ (meaning home), ‘Castes’ (members of the family) ‘Mellitus Propolis’ combines Mellitus (Latin for sweet)) used in describing Diabetes Mellitus and Propolis (the resin that bees use to hold hives together).

The album package makes use of the artist’s wife Richelle Forsey, who is a visual artist. Richelle often employs a process using the energy of the sun (ultra violet) to expose a camera-less image on paper coated with iron salts. This is called a cyanotype and the paper undergoes a chemical reaction which fixes the image, thus creating an imprinted monochrome ‘blueprint’.

Cyanotype

wlr121 Fossil Hunting Collective - Cyanotypes

It's a slow start to the day at Andravoahangy market in Madagascar's capital. Sellers are unwrapping their wares and laying them out in little displays in their stalls. Recorded with Sony PCM D100.

Calm day at the market in Antananarivo

What if the secret life of the machines that surround me every day grew suddenly louder, the way a part of the body cries out for attention whenever pain arises? I began to walk through my new and apparently post-pandemic city, where the quiet streets hummed again, and even the air seemed cut with a new intensity and purpose. This track begins with a late night calling, an uneven pulse, that summons a world of ticking gears and levers, underpinned with dark drones and stretched choral verses, as if despair was the necessary beginning of every joy.

Back In The Streets

Mersive

Whale Song is a collection of underwater recordings of humpback whales singing and calling in the Indian Ocean. Get the library at https://mindful-audio.com/whale-song.

MAFX025 WHALE SONG Demo

2023.05.19 Microbat Nocturne. Mallee Country. Late Autumn.

Fin de soirée. Temps calme. Le blongios nain entame son chant. Sur l'autre rive, un autre mâle chante également. La rousserolle effarvatte nous fait profiter de son talent d'imitatrice, avec ici un début de chant inspiré de celui de l'hypolaïs polyglotte. Juin 2023

Sound Devices MixPre 6II + Parabole Telinga Modular

Le discret blongios nain

Recorded respectfully on the land of the Nuennone people.

The Superb Lyrebird (Menura novaehollandiae victoriae) is not native to Tasmania: it was deliberately introduced there - by an ornithology group. Between 1934 and 1949, 22 Superb Lyrebirds were released at Mt Field National Park in the mid south and at Hastings in the far south. The Lyrebirds flourished, and continue to spread widely. Today, experts estimate that their population must be well over 10,000, if not even higher. The Superb Lyrebird has basically 'gone feral'.  And it's known to be having some negative impacts on forest ecosystems. However, one thing that I haven't yet seen discussed or studied is what negative acoustic-ecological impacts Lyrebirds might be having upon native and especially endemic Tasmanian bird species. Some forest soundscapes are being overwhelmed by multiple Lyrebirds, spread through the forest, simultaneously performing intricate, complex and well-projected mimicry for very long periods of time. Fascinating as this is, it's very hard to believe that the native and endemic bird species can communicate naturally and effectively, as they need to do, when such mayhem is going on.

2023.09.24 Superb Lyrebird Mimicking Other Birds. Dawn. Huon Valley. Early Spring.

Jungle mornings in Borneo are pretty lively, with plenty of birds singing and mammals calling. At Maliau Basin there are many troops of Gibbons whose calls resonate through the valleys. Longer version on Youtube at https://youtu.be/6DhT7SjelLE

Read about my expedition to Borneo at https://mindful-audio.com/blog/sound-recording-borneo

Borneo rainforest - Calm morning at Maliau Basin

One of my favourite soundscapes to listen to and record is that of rainforest hills. Get immersed into the complex layers of calls as the day progresses. Long version at https://youtu.be/pXi0lIfNkA0

In The Jungles Of Borneo

Award winning sound recordist, audio director and expedition leader - Dune: Part Two | Mufasa: The Lion King | Horizon Forbidden West | Wordscapes

Borneo rainforest - Calm morning at Maliau Basin

George Vlad

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