elegy

Entangled ritual visions.

Skylight 1:20pm

The smallest  harbour in the UK at Seacliff, East Lothian, Scotland. A big swell was activating a loose metal gantry hanging down the harbour wall.
23 March 2025 16:30

Seacliff (East Lothian)

A Days Walking in the Hills South of Glenfinnan, Lochaber, Scotland 2025
High on Sgùrr Ghiubhsachain.
Nobody seen all day. Sounds heard like Ghosts under a Huge Blue Dome of Silence.
6th April 2025

MKH8020 spaced pair + Zoom F3

no company but the wind

Astor Hall reverb at the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building

Bryant Park
2025-04-04

Astor Hall 3:20pm

impromptu 2025-04-18

This piece, based on several field recordings has been requested, by the Cercle des Amitiés Créoles de la Creuse. The theme was Banks and Shores. It has been designed to be listened with headphones during an exhibition.

Cette pièce, basée sur plusieurs enregistrements de terrain, a été demandée par le Cercle des Amitiés Créoles de la Creuse sur le thème de Berges et des Rivages. Elle a été conçue pour être écoutée au casque pendant un évènement public organisée par l'association du 4 au 10 mai 2025.

Phenomena is Mind 2

An excerpt from an evening-to-dawn recording: here, Glossy Black Cockatoos are departing a forest at dawn, at the western end of Kangaroo Island.

The Glossy Black Cockatoo of Kangaroo Island is a unique subspecies (Calyptorhynchus lathami halmaturinus), which is listed as endangered in South Australia, and as a species of concern on Kangaroo Island itself. It is one of 16 bird species endemic to the island.

The Glossy Black originally also inhabited the southernmost coastal region of South Australia, but due to invasive and extensive land clearing for sheep and cattle, forests of Sheoak were demolished. The Glossy Black Cockatoo feeds exclusively on the seeds in the cones of Sheoak trees (Casuarina and Allocasuarina). Hence, for refuge and survival, the Glossy Blacks retreated to Kangaroo Island, where large stands of Sheoak still remained intact. The Glossy Blacks disappeared entirely from the mainland.

During the unnaturally intense bushfires of the 'Black Summer' of 2019-2020, vast areas of natural bushland, mainly at the western end of the island, were severely damaged. The stands of Sheoak that the Glossy Blacks depended upon for food and nesting were obliterated. Unlike eucalypts, which can resprout, Sheoaks must grow again from seed, and it may take ten or more years for new seed-bearing Sheoak forests to re-establish themselves. The Glossy Blacks have now retreated to the east end of the island, untouched by the bushfires, where stands of Sheoak remain. However, the eastern end of the island is much more heavily populated by people than the western end, which comprises large areas of national parks, conservation parks, and wilderness protection areas.

While it is currently relatively easy to catch sight of Glossy Blacks at the busy and noisy eastern end of the island, it is not so easy to see them, let alone to record them, at the western end of the island, a mere five years after the bushfire. I had no intention to seek them out in the eastern end, in the midst of human busyness and noise.

Surprisingly, this recording was made in a forest at the western end of the island - largely through the grace of their perfectly normal, natural, biological state of being 'turned-on, tuned-in, dropped-out', i.e., the 'cosmic kindness', of the Glossy Black Cockatoos, themselves! Just one quite unexpected Glossy Black arrived in the early evening; and, without knowing exactly where the Glossy Black had gone, I set up my recording gear for an overnight to dawn recording. Several more must have also arrived during the evening; they departed again, at dawn. I feel confident in saying that these gentle beings live purely for life and love, per se, without causing harm to any other species. The 'love of profit' is, of course, incomprehensible to them; but that just makes them more noble beings. I adore and respect their pure existence, and grieve for their acutely difficult struggle for continued existence.

(MKH 8040s ORTF > Zoom F3 - all purchased thanks to an Australian federal government directive during the Covid-19 lockdown that allowed us to withdraw money from our superannuation funds so that we wouldn't inconvenience our landlords or banks by not being able to pay our rents or mortgages.)

Track photograph credit: with much gratitude to Michael Jury, photograph taken on 7th March 2023 at 10:21 am on Kangaroo Island (slightly modified). (https://www.mykelphotography.com.au/latest-trips-and-location-copy-1)

2025.04.10 Dawn with Glossy Black Cockatoos. Kangaroo Island. Autumn.

Tränningen 250501

(Best listened to with good quality headphones with a flat frequency response.)

Recorded on land of the Meru and Danggali peoples, which is now a private protected area, purchased from pastoral lease in 1997 by BirdLife Australia (see https://www.gluepot.org/). The Reserve is also part of the Riverland Biosphere Reserve and the Riverland Mallee Important Bird Area.

Track image credit: Kym Nicolson, https://www.inaturalist.org/photos/60529363, under (CC BY) license. 28th November 2019, Gluepot Reserve, South Australia.

Gluepot Reserve. First Listenings

Own this track

2020.09.05 Mallee Habitat (3). Spring. Yellow-plumed Honeyeaters and a Grey Currawong.

𝔈𝔵𝔭𝔩𝔬𝔯𝔦𝔫𝔤 ℌ𝔢𝔞𝔯𝔦𝔫𝔤, 𝔱𝔥𝔢 ℌ𝔢𝔞𝔯𝔞𝔟𝔩𝔢, 𝔞𝔫𝔡 𝔱𝔥𝔢 ℌ𝔢𝔞𝔯𝔢𝔯, 𝔞𝔰 𝔞𝔫 𝔈𝔳𝔢𝔫𝔱, 𝔞 𝔐𝔬𝔡𝔢, 𝔞𝔫𝔡 𝔞 𝔇𝔦𝔪𝔢𝔫𝔰𝔦𝔬𝔫 𝔬𝔣 𝔅𝔢𝔦𝔫𝔤.

2020.09.05 Mallee Habitat (3). Spring. Yellow-plumed Honeyeaters and a Grey Currawong.

𝕳𝖊𝖆𝖗𝖎𝖓𝖌 𝕭𝖊𝖎𝖓𝖌𝖘

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