of course we all could read about those storms - thank you for making it possible to be an ear witness

The way the thunder reveals how tall the atmosphere really is... how vast, compared to the intimacy of space expressed by the raindrops. The birds seem to enjoy the rain. I would be frightened to be sitting up on a perch singing in a thunderstorm!

Species: song thrush, greylag goose, common chiffchaff etc...

Song Thrush was captured by Telinga Universal MK2 parabolic reflector & Sennheiser MKH8020, backgournd ambience track: MS stereo Sennheiser MKH8040, MKH 30, 48Khz/24bit into MixPre6

Location: Zahorie, Slovakia, Czech Republic
Date: 28. 3. 2021
Starting of recording: 6:20h
Temperature: 3-8 °C
Photo by: Soňa Sommerová

Song Thrush Dawn Chorus Zahorie Slovakia

This is a recording of some interactions on a black grouse lek in the highlands of Scotland. 

It was recorded with a Sony M10 and a matched pair of Clippy EM172 mics.

AVIEMORE  - BLACK GROUSE LEK - EARLY MORNING - VERY CLOSE COOING AND HISSES 2.0 M10

Two black woodpeckers hammering in duel, a wren can be heard in the background. 

Recorded :  24.03.2022,   3 pm.
Location:   Siebentischwald, Augsburg/Bavaria - Germany
ZOMM F8 - RODE NT5 MP - ORTF - Sourcefile: 96 KHz

Black Woodpecker - Wren Wood - Ambient - Forest - Field Recording - Nature

A short and quick test for Zoom F3 and Dodotronic Hi-Sound stereo 2 + 2 AOM 5024 Phantom Power 48Volt stereo parabolic microphone.

Zoom F3 - Dodotronic HiSound Stereo - Nightingale Song

Red Deer Rut - Binaural 26:09:2022

These recordings were made with deep respect in the country of the Ngarrindjeri peoples.

With respect, with sadness, with hope. Everything here has changed; except for the sound of the ocean. Where the waters meet, is where the sounds merge. The sound of the ocean, permeating all, remains the same.

Unprocessed excerpts from original recordings. (Listening with good quality headphones - preferably open-backed - with a flat frequency response is recommended.)

An Afterword: I am deeply pleased and honoured that the original recordings from which this piece was composed have found a perfect home in Megan Spencer's important and heartfelt podcast, 'Bringing His Spirit Home: Private Arthur Thomas Walker, Ngarrindjeri ANZAC', as immersive field recordings made in, and expressing the natural spirit of, Arthur Thomas Walker's home country. This educational podcast is one of four produced by Megan, commissioned by the Virtual War Memorial Australia, and can be heard here: https://vwma.org.au/education/bringing-his-spirit-home-private-arthur-thomas-walker-ngarrindjeri-anzac.

Some of my earlier Kurangk/Coorong recordings have also been happily woven into Megan's related podcast, 'Walking in Two Worlds: The WW1 Story of Ngarrindjeri ANZACs Cryril & Rufus Rigney', which can be heard here: https://vwma.org.au/education/podcast--walking-in-two-worlds--the-ww1-story-of-ngarrindjeri-anzacs-cyril-rufus-rigney.

@Bandcamp

2022.10.09 From the Mouth of Murrundi to Goolwa Beach. Kumerangk, Kurangk. Night to Dawn. Spring.

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.

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

A long soundscape across Dawn in the Queets River Valley rainforest of the Olympic National Park. Starting in Astronomical Twilight, a small herd of Roosevelt Elk walks in from a distance, though a small forest glade, an away towards the Queets River bed.

Early Autumn rainfall and dropping Maple Leaves are the dominant sounds to begin, their pak-pak-spaks are a reminder that time passes, even in the still quiet of a moss-covered forest.

Highway 101 in less than 12 miles away, and distant traffic is funneled up the Valley, showing the difficulty of escaping human-generated sound. This has been mitigated somewhat with light processing, but close listening and inspection will make remnants evident. There are no other edits or processes committed.

I love the crisp cold air of the rainforests in the fall. Sounds, natural and human generated, carry into the distant. Tucked into my sleeping bag, I lay back in my small tent, listening to the forest awaken. Where once there was just the soft distant wash of the river, the elk are joined by the local birds. Steller's Jays shriek their song with grating-yet-amusing "CHA-CHA-CHA-CHAs". A Northern Saw-whet toots in the forest canopy. Young Varied Thrush practice their songs, not quite reaching the beautiful and haunting signature fluting of their predecessors, instead emitting a silly buzzer-bell-like noise. Pacific Wren singing at the end of their season and the occasional Kingfisher make an appearance as well. Noe of these complete with the sheer vibrance of the elk.

Roosevelt Elk or Roosevelt's Wapiti or Rainforest Elk are the largest remaining elk species in North America and thrive in shadowy silences of the Pacific Northwest's temperate rainforests. Bull's bugles and roars echo through the trees, becoming one of the signature sounds of the Olympic Mountains. The cows mew and squeal in return, listening for one another to not wander far astray.

The small herd is a tight-nit family group, a with one, maybe two, dominant bulls, five or six cows in their harem, and a handful of young. The dominant bull leads the group on a daily hike, down from the upper valley to the river and back again. Their bugles urge the group, both signaling the direction to go and scolding those that dawdle. As they pass through the glade, their heavy footfall on the vegetative floor thump-thump-thumps their presence as much as the vocalizations and the continued crushing of vegetation as they push by.

I can't get enough of their energy. They pull back frequently. No matter how many times I encounter them, Elk never cease to awe me.

Click through the comments below for some highlights!

Northwest Soundscapes

Queets River Valley Rainforest Dawn with Elk

2023.05.19 Microbat Nocturne. Mallee Country. Late Autumn.

Atacama Desert is a collection of stereo and quad soundscapes recorded in the barren but amazingly beautiful desert plateau of Western Chile. Get it at https://mindful-audio.com/atacama-desert

MAFX027 Atacama Desert Demo

The sounds of a new day in the African bush. This album was recorded in Northern Tuli Game Reserve in Botswana and features the diverse sounds of birds and wildlife in an ecotone of mopane woodland and arid savanna.

Botswana: Dawn in Tuli Wilderness

Botswana: Dawn in Tuli Wilderness - Album Sample

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Exploring hearing, the hearable, and the hearer, as an event, a mode, and a dimension of Βeing (τὸ εἶναι).

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

Hearing Beings

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AudioFokus - Axel Mecke

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