North Sea island Spiekeroog, June 2025
Clippies EM272, Zoom F3

In the dunes, early morning: herring gulls, skylarks

This recording was meant to be a simple, practical, innocuous, and unambitious gear test, purely for the purpose of trialling a mid-side microphone arrangement with improvised windshield. There was no intention of making a 'serious' nature field recording, because I know this location very well, and I know exactly what to expect. Yet, while sitting there, intently listening as I was recording, some kind of story, a narrative, an essay - or rather, a simple, literal reality - naturally, and unnaturally, spontaneously and yet not merely spontaneously, unfolded in and through the soundscape... Nothing overstated; rather, thanks to distance, quite subtle, far away, and detached; and yet, perhaps, all the more telling and disturbing, precisely for that reason. And so, I decided to include the whole unedited and unaltered recording, here, under the banner of 'Problematic Interpenetrations'.

The word 'incroachment' is probably my own neologism: the usual word is 'encroachment'. The prefix 'en-' implies something approaching from 'outside', whereas the prefix 'in-' suggests something 'encroaching' from 'inside' (yes, that is paradoxical). The reason for this choice or construction of a 'new' (or at least uncommon or unfamiliar) word has to do with the way in which the sound or noise of something happening at a distance, from 'outside', but gradually approaching, is already present, here, from where it can definitely already be heard. Although the source of the sound has not yet physically arrived, and may still be far away, its sound or noise is already present, here, and that presence is not merely a sign, an index, a premonition: it already has subtle but real causal influences and effects. Creatures, plants, beings, are already responding...

Hearing is a very special, important, and vital sense, in this respect. There are many things we can hear, long before we can see them, or be touched by them. Yes, we can see lightning before we hear thunder, if it is within view of our eyes. But we can also hear thunder long before we can see lightning, if it is beyond the reach of our eyes. As Gordon Hempton has observed: while we sleep, our eyes are closed; but our ears remain open. This fact was crucial to our ancestors' survival. Is it the case, today, that we value what our eyes tell us, far more than what our ears tell us? Are we losing, or have we already lost, our ancestors' attunement to the survival value of simple hearing?

2025.06.13 The Incroachment. A Meditative Reflection. Winter.

[00:00] Part I; [02:55] Part II, "Hammerklavier"; [13:24] Part III

Radio bardo ₂₀₁₆ ᶰʸᶜ

MORE JET$ IN THE AIR!
MORE JET$ IN THE AIR!

WE DON’T BLOODY CARE
AS LONG AS PROFIT’$ THERE!

HO HO! HO HO!
PACK YOUR BAG$
OFF YOU GO!
HERE’$ YOUR TICKET
YOU CAN $TICK IT!

MORE JET$ IN THE AIR!

HO HO! HO HO!
MILLIONAIRE!
BILLIONAIRE!

MORE JET$ IN THE AIR!

____________________________

According to FlightRadar24's aviation statistics, in August 2025 the highest daily seven-day moving average of global flights was 259,858, with the actual number of flights peaking on 7th August 2025 with 276,831 in one day. As you will see from the graph in the track image, cited from FlightRadar24's 2025 statistics (covering January to August 2025), the number of daily flights just keeps increasing... And we keep hearing of new international runways and terminals being planned and built in many countries and cities.
____________________________

This recording was made on Wednesday 19th August 2025 in a eucalypt forest in the foothills of Adelaide, just three kilometres (approximately two miles) from where I live, during mid afternoon. A pair of Clippy EM172 omni microphones, plugged into a Zoom F3, were clipped onto tree twigs and left alone while I continued walking, enjoying a sunny winter's afternoon stroll, surrounded by numerous familiar species of local native birds. And, of course, numerous jets.

Some might say, "Well, the birds and other native animals carry on their lives, despite the noise and all that goes with it. So what's the problem?" Yes, indeed, they do, as best they can, because they must, and have no other choice, unless or until they become endangered or extinct; and so do we, because we, too, must, and have no other choice. But isn't THAT precisely the fundamental problem? To put it quite bluntly: aren't we being forced to live - to survive - under the rule of a kind of environmentally toxic fascism, dictated by an inflexible, irrational, and insensitive political economy?

I believe wholeheartedly in a free world. But I absolutely do not endorse the ancient lie that 'justice is the advantage of the stronger', and that those who have contrived economic, political, military, financial and cultural advantage have the putative right to tell us what 'justice' is, and to tell us what we are required, even against our wills, to suffer, in order that their own 'advantage' rules. Nor do I believe that if - let's say, for the sake of the argument - one million people are persuaded to subscribe to, support, and hence also enjoy the ample benefits of, such an irrational and unjust political economy, that the objection of one thousand, or one hundred, or one dozen people, or even of just  ONE unpersuaded person -  who disagree(s) with and reject(s) that way of being and doing things for fundamentally valid and true reasons, should be overruled, rejected and subjected, merely on the basis of a simplistic, crude and primitive numerical count! A 'majority' is not necessarily 'right', merely by being a 'majority'! And yet, people find this very plain and incontrovertible fact so remarkably difficult to see, to understand, and to accept!

Let's not forget that Hitler was voted into power 'democratically' by a majority of voters. As Hitler recognised, very early in the game, the simplistic concept and system of 'democracy' can be very conveniently and readily manipulated by persuasion through ideology and mass media. 'Democracy' and 'Fascism' do not necessarily stand in logical opposition. When populists, hegemonists and dictators, alike, cannot control by persuasion, they will resort to force. And vice versa. No one has yet resolved the fundamental problem of how to actualise a genuinely 'free society'... And what, indeed, IS a 'genuinely free society'...?

2025.08.19 MORE JET$ IN THE AIR!

This was the first time I could listen to a longer sequence of ants stridulating in their nest – and I was and am totally fascinated by these really weird sounds. Of course, there is also a lot of crawling und running going on....
Recorded in the German Alps (Allgäu) with JrF ecoutic microphone into Leaf Audio field amp into Mixpre 6ii

Stridulating ants

This is a bit from overnight unattended recording. I woke up with uneasy feeling as the sound resembled Shahed drone sounds I have heard from youtube videos. It was still pretty dark (4:50 AM).  

Drone sound in the night

Recorded with clippies em272 and mxpre 6ii at 192 kHz (32bit float), slowed down to 1/20 of the original speed and rendered to 24bit/48 kHz


Different species of bats circling a barn

I had a lovely time in the Siggefora wolf territory. My droprigs did not catch any wolves unfortunately but two singing males Great Grey Owls, two Ural Owls and two Pygmy Owls in addition to Red Deer and Fallow Deer. But the best recording was that of a singing Hazel Grouse. During the autumn they sing quite actively pairing up for next Spring.

Siggefora, Uppland. August 28, 2025.
Zoom F3 + Clippy EM272 as tree ears

Hazel grouse is actively singing during the autumn

Arriving at the lake under ominous cloud-cover, the tent was pitched and I scouted a bit and found a sizable barge, beached, which I surmised might used as a floating stage. The long metal flotation cylinders produced deep steel-drum tones. With the threatening weather conditions, I chose to record them all as best I could (only two segments used here) even while a sailor, who had just loaded his boat onto his trailer, tried to negotiate the narrow paths with his truck in order to turn the rig around. Rather than take the chance of being soaked  or unable to record in the downpour that did arrive with ferocious elan one hour later, I decided to jam with the motor vehicle in medias res. I am joined later by various genrous accompanists: a nearby village horse-cart, a helicopter, some pyrotechnicians, other docking boats. VLF and some radio rounding out the sonoscene.

Lacul Bicaz op 153

A very, very gradually unfurling, utterly unhurried, dawn chorus, beginning from the very first faint bird calls of First Light (Crescent Honeyeaters) in a eucalypt forest near the north-western coast of Kangaroo Island. In various passages of the recording, the gentle, plaintive calls of Glossy Black Cockatoos (an endangered species) can be heard; also, occasionally, the loud, wailing calls of Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos.

A continuous unedited recording. By human time, this extract from an overnight unattended recording, made on Thursday 10th April 2025 (five years after the catastrophic Black Summer bushfires), runs from 05:34 to 07:27.

Recommended listening: good quality headphones (preferably open-backed) with flat frequency response, or good quality monitors, at a low to mid volume.

Recorded mindfully and respectfully on land and water which, although not indigenously inhabited for some 4000 years, remains to this day of fundamental cultural, spiritual and historical importance to the indigenous mainland Ramindjeri, Ngarrindjeri, Kaurna, and Narangga peoples.

2025.04.10 From First Light. Wilderness Protection Area. Kangaroo Island.

Migrating Cranes are gathering on strategic places along the coast two-three weeks before leaving the country. This is from an overnight recording inside a barn in Preiviiki Fields not long away from here.

The wind was a strong North Westerly with small showers and very gusty. Five days later the Crane was gone. Listen with headphones, thanks!

http://www.rupuranta.net/weblog/filet/200910/

(MKH8020 ab60cm, MixPre 32>24/48, no processing, flac)

Jan Eerala Finland

Wind Barn & Cranes - 10/9/2020 - Preiviiki Fields

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

2025.04.10 From First Light. Wilderness Protection Area. Kangaroo Island.

𝕳𝖊𝖆𝖗𝖎𝖓𝖌 𝕭𝖊𝖎𝖓𝖌𝖘