From little Rayhat Reef (4 miles from our shore) before sunrise at 03.40 am. with Herring Gulls awakening. The microphones were placed in a Buckthorn where a flock of young Starlings kept night. (4.00>) (The low rumble is from a very distant ship. From 15 hours of recording, the noise is here as lowest)

Updating www.rupuranta.net

(MKH8020 ab80cm, MixPre3 32float>24/48, no processing, Flac)

Sunrise with Herring Gulls - 15/7/2021 - Rayhat Reef

This is a personal review of the year 2021 - consisting of twelve short musical sections, one per month. The sections were each cut from a RabMusicLab track released in the corresponding month. The tracks were chosen upon their personal or musical importance.

The picture is intended to show a symbol for the passage of time:
It is inspired by the "chronopteric birds" featured in the series of graphic novels "Azimut" by Wilfrid Lupano and Jean-Baptiste Andreae. According to the publisher this is an "incredible Terry Gilliam-esque fantasy tale" and has Time as one of its main subjects.
The photograph shows one of the metal water-spouting birds in the garden of Schwetzingen palace which remind me of these time-related animals in the graphic novel.

The list of tracks:
https://soundcloud.com/rabmusiclab/machinery
https://soundcloud.com/rabmusiclab/le-brouillard-du-desespoir
https://soundcloud.com/rabmusiclab/evening-contemplation
https://soundcloud.com/rabmusiclab/strange-weather
https://soundcloud.com/rabmusiclab/lost-and-found-feat-yaccn
https://soundcloud.com/rabmusiclab/pre-set-in-the-bay-of-plenty
https://soundcloud.com/rabmusiclab/the-devils-harp-of-glass
https://soundcloud.com/rabmusiclab/wilde-rosmarie
https://soundcloud.com/rabmusiclab/three-fifths-remain
https://soundcloud.com/rabmusiclab/vatn-is-vatn
https://soundcloud.com/rabmusiclab/bedtime-for-musical-bots
https://soundcloud.com/rabmusiclab/between-waves-and-stars

This track is following the Disquiet Junto Project 0522.

More on this 522nd weekly Disquiet Junto project – Just Backdated (The Assignment: Create a sonic diary of the past year with a dozen (or more) super-brief segments) – at: https://disquiet.com/0522/

More on the Disquiet Junto at: https://disquiet.com/junto/

Subscribe to project announcements here: https://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co 1: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0522-just-backdated/

There’s also a Disquiet Junto Slack. Send your email address to marc@disquiet.com for Slack inclusion.

Sonic Diary 2021 (Disquiet0522)

Anti-imperialist commentator Richard Medhurst reports that Instagram has deleted some 20 images from his account and given him a warning that he could face a permanent ban if he continues making similar posts. The posts in question are screenshots from a Twitter thread Medhurst made to commemorate the two-year anniversary of the Trump administration's assassination of renowned Iranian military leader Qasem Soleimani.

Go ahead and read the thread; here's the hyperlink again. There's nothing in there that comes anywhere remotely close to violating Instagram's terms of service as they are written; Medhurst condemns the assassination and the bogus justifications provided for it, and discusses Soleimani's crucial role in the fight against ISIS and Al Qaeda. The reason for Instagram's censorship of Medhurst's political speech is that Instagram's parent company Meta (then called Facebook) determined after Soleimani's assassination that anything which seems supportive of him constitutes a violation of US sanctions and must therefore be removed.

In 2019 the Trump administration designated Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, which was as hypocritical and arbitrary as any other government designating any other branch of another government's military a terrorist organization. Despite this completely baseless designation, both the Meta-owned social media platforms Facebook and Instagram have been actively censoring political speech about Soleimani, who was the commander of the IRGC's Quds force when he was assassinated. Medhurst reports that he has been censored on Instagram under the same justification for posting about Hamas as well.

Reading by Tim Foley.

Medhurst thread:https://twitter.com/richimedhurst/status/1477991667189919750

Meta Censors Anti - Imperialist Speech In Obedience To The US Government

The swelling likelihood of imminent armageddon draws everything into focus. Helps clarify your priorities. Helps you figure out how to live your life from moment to moment.

And from where I'm sitting this clarity brings with it a sense of responsibility as a human being. A responsibility to really be here now. To truly live our lives with presence and appreciation. To drink deeply of the cup of human experience. Because the only thing worse than everything ending would be if it ended without having been seen and valued while it lasted.

We have control over so very little in this insane little pickle we've found ourselves in. But one thing we can definitely control is whether we're really showing up for however much time we've got left on this amazing blue planet.

Reading by Tim Foley.

Being This Close To Nuclear War Should Change How We See Things`

In what appears to be yet another escalation in Silicon Valley's redoubled efforts to quash dissident voices since the beginning of the Ukraine war, PayPal has just blocked the accounts of multiple alternative media voices who've been speaking critically against official US empire narratives. These include journalist and speaker Caleb Maupin and Mnar Adley and Alan MacLeod of MintPress News.

Reading by Tim Foley.

PayPal Blocks Multiple Alternative Media Figures Critical Of US Empire Narratives

The Forêt des Cedres (cedar forest) is one of the most unusual of the forests and green spaces of the Luberon massif, given the oriental origin of these large trees. At an altitude of 727 metres, the cedar forest was originally planted with seeds from the Algerian Middle Atlas, back in 1861.

Due to it's altitude and distance from major towns and roads, the forest is very quiet and makes for a perfect recording location. I arrived an hour before sunrise intending to record the spring dawn chorus. As I approached the entrance to the forest I heard a nightingale singing so I slowly approached, getting as close to the bird's song post without disturbing it. I setup my mics using the "tree ears" technique: spaced omnis with the tree trunk acting as a natural baffle. 

Sony PCM A10 + 2 x Lom Mikro Uši (tree ears technique)
02.05.2022

Common Nightingale - Forêt des Cèdres du Luberon, France

The spring dawn chorus recorded in the heart of the Forêt des Cèdres du Luberon. This cedar forest is one of the most unusual of the forests and green spaces of the Luberon massif, given the oriental origin of these large trees. At an altitude of 727 metres, the cedar forest was originally planted with seeds from the Algerian Middle Atlas back in 1861. Due to it's altitude and distance from major towns and roads, the forest is very quiet and makes for a perfect recording location.

Sound Devices Mix Pre 6 II + 2 x Sennheiser MKH 8040 (ORTF)
02.05.2022

Dawn Chorus - Forêt des Cèdres du Luberon, France

Joe Biden doing a live infomercial for Javelin missiles while everyone who voted for him worries about women's reproductive rights is the most Joe Biden thing that has ever happened.

Reading by Tim Foley.

The Most Joe Biden Thing Ever

Close your eyes, put your headphones on and enjoy a few moments in the Amazon rainforest with this soundscape.

Amongst the plethora of birds (not to mention those pesky mosquitos) listen to members of the Yanomami tribe carrying out their daily lives in the heart of the rainforest.

But the Yanomami's lands and lives are now being destroyed by illegal gold mining.  Please support their fight for survival by emailing the Brazilian authorities: www.svlint.org/YanoSounds

Sounds of the Rainforest – the Yanomami

Fox News's fabulously popular right wing pundit Tucker Carlson has ratcheted up his show's anti-China propaganda yet again, introducing his interview with Brazil's rightist president Jair Bolsonaro with a psychotic rant against Beijing that, were it about Moscow, would have looked perfectly at home among even the most demented mainstream liberal punditry at the height of Russiagate hysteria around 2018.

Before attempting to help Bolsonaro reverse his abysmal polling against his left-wing opponent Lula da Silva in a presidential election this coming October, Carlson led with the completely unevidenced claim that "China has been busy with its own agenda—taking over the world."

Reading by Tim Foley.

Tucker Carlson Is As Much A Propagandist As Anyone Else In MSM

Reggae for Nick - RIP DJ Brother (Vinyl Bro) 3

Readings of all Caitlin Johnstone's articles, usually by her co-writer Tim Foley.