Name: In The Jungles Of Borneo by George Vlad in Borneo 2020
Duration: 11 min 28 s
Description: 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

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

Summer night on Hällsjön at around 1:00am. Eurasian Bittern, Common Snipe, Eurasian Woodcock, Sedge Warbler and many more species were actively calling 
through the (short!) night.

Hällsjön Wetland Night Soundscape - Sweden

It's the end of June. Most birds are engaged in breeding chicks or the chicks have already left the nest. There aren't many forest birds who sing anymore. I find Icterine Warbler singing in the black alder forest. At some point, Wren will join him. 
Recording contains sound that sounds like white noise. The air is no longer crystal clear like the mornings of May. Wind in the leaves, the insects and maybe my new pair of em-172 microphones are contributing to this. From time to time there is a knocking sound, these are two trunks of trees that are pushed together by the wind. The photo was taken exactly where the sound was recorded. I believe there is some kind of crepis in the picture

The Icterine Warbler and The Eurasian wren 25 June at Alam-Pedja Nature Reserve, Estonia

Sample from the 93 minute album "Borneo: Nepenthes Forest". 

Gentle rain, frogs, birds and a thunderstorm recorded in one of Borneo’s unique lower montane habitats.

Full album available for download from https://wildambience.com/albums/borneo-nepenthes-forest/

Borneo: Nepenthes Forest

Borneo: Nepenthes Forest - Album Sample

On Saturday, 12 November 2022, South Australia, including the whole Adelaide region, experienced an uncharacteristic extended storm of unusual intensity. Several storm fronts, arriving from the NW over St Vincent's Gulf, hit Adelaide and the Fleurieu Peninsula. The storm has been described as "one of the strongest thunderstorms in recent memory",* causing flash flooding, wind gusts exceeding 100 km/h that tore down huge gum trees (many of which crushed houses, cars, and electricity lines), as well as flattening giant electricity pylons, leaving around a hundred thousand people without power. 

This recording, made in the Adelaide Hills (near Norton Summit), captures a sample of the first and mildest storm wavefront that day. (The recording begins at 10:30 in the morning. This abridged version selects two excerpts from the longer recording, chosen because of the poignant presence of bird calls audible between the peals of thunder. The highlighted parts of the spectrogram in the track image indicate the passages from the longer recording that were selected for this abridged version.) The microphones sheltered from the fairly light rain underneath a 'sweet pittosporum' or 'native daphne' tree (Pittosporum undulatum), native to southeastern Australia, but a 'declared plant' in South Australia ('a woody weed invading native local vegetation', due to widespread ornamental planting).

Travelling farther south immediately after this recording, I was able to intercept the next two storm wavefronts, which were far more intense. Although the storm was utterly awesome and spectacular (lightning bolts plunging into fields, exploding thunder tearing the atmosphere apart), it was impossible to find any spot from which to record the storm, because it brought with it an abundant lashing downpour of rain and wild tree-tossing winds. All the shelters in the state forests had iron rooves: the rain battering the rooves was deafening, drowning out even the peals of thunder.

In the end, I could only just sit and experience it. Which, after all, is the very best thing to do, with Nature. (Most of the time, at least. Not recommended when it gets this violent. Although I have to say that this was truly a very beautiful and awe-inspiring experience; and, personally, I'm very glad to have been out there to witness it. I'm also contemplating possible recording solutions, in case this ever happens again... Enraptured by thunderstorms as a spatial music of nature. All that I have said, here, is the simple truth.)
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*https://www.weatherzone.com.au/news/why-the-adelaide-storm-was-so-intense/925471
https://www.sapowernetworks.com.au/data/313806/12-november-storm-update-from-sa-power-networks/
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/11/18/australias-indigenous-people-call-for-seat-at-table-at-cop27
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Recorded with respect upon the land of the Kaurna people.

@Bandcamp

2022.11.12 Storm above the Hills. Late Spring. (Excerpt)

This natural soundscape was recording early morning, deep in the forests of Tangkoko Nature Reserve, Sulawesi.

Species recorded on this track include Green Imperial Pigeon, Black-naped Fruit Dove, Black-billed Koel, Ornate Lorikeet, Blue-backed Parrot, Knobbed Hornbill, Sulawesi Hornbill, Black-naped Oriole, Pied Cuckooshrike, Pale-blue Monarch and many more...

Tangkoko Morning - A Rainforest Soundscape from Sulawesi

Tangkoko Morning - A Rainforest Soundscape from Sulawesi, Indonesia

This new album was recorded at Sweetwater Lagoon, Lakefield National Park, in the far north of Australia. It captures the natural sounds of a tropical wetland awakening to a new day. Read more about the tracks and album here -  https://wildambience.com/albums/a-morning-at-sweetwater-lagoon/

A Morning at Sweetwater Lagoon

'A Morning at Sweetwater Lagoon' - Album Sample

Kutini Payamu (Iron Range) National Park is a biodiversity hotspot with a unique combination of New Guinean and Australian fauna and flora. 

The soundscapes of this area are rich and varied - and quite different from those further south in the forests of the Daintree region. This album captures some of the rare sounds of the lowland rainforests of Kutini-Payamu. For more information visit https://wildambience.com/albums/a-morning-in-kutini-payamu

A Morning in Kutini-Payamu

'A Morning in Kutini-Payamu' - Album Sample. Recorded in Iron Range NP, Queensland

An old forest in central Sweden with woodpeckers drumming

Woodpeckers in early Spring, Sweden

Slow soundscapes from the Amazon rainforest. Longer version at  
https://youtu.be/66RWAfuKPq4

Hot Afternoon In The Amazon

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

In The Jungles Of Borneo

George Vlad

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