lots to discover here. this needs several listens... so complex. dope recording!

axis

What if the secret life of the machines that surround me every day grew suddenly louder, the way a part of the body cries out for attention whenever pain arises? I began to walk through my new and apparently post-pandemic city, where the quiet streets hummed again, and even the air seemed cut with a new intensity and purpose. This track begins with a late night calling, an uneven pulse, that summons a world of ticking gears and levers, underpinned with dark drones and stretched choral verses, as if despair was the necessary beginning of every joy.

Back In The Streets

Cervus elaphus hispanicus refers to the red deer of Portugal and Spain. It's slightly smaller than those across the Pyrenees.
The rutting season (referred to as 'brama' in Portugal) starts mid-August and goes until the end of September. 
The recording was in an area in interior Alentejo where wild boars and white-tailed deer live in big numbers and all can be heard throughout this segment.

Red deer call in the valley

Red Deer call in the valley

Released December 11, 2022
https://scalq.bandcamp.com/album/5055360

N0Cmnh.P

A male European nightjar delivers his strange motor like song from one of his favorite song post before moving to the next one, ending his trill by a joyful wing clap.

Lyon countryside, late spring.
2023-06-10, 22h

Lom Usi Pro, Sony PCM M10

Recorded by Grégoire Chauvot & Mélia Roger

Illustration : John Gerrard Keulemans, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

European nightjar, Song and wing clap - Mélia Roger & Grégoire Chauvot

UnusualEncounter III (extract)

Sunrise at an Irish raised bog and bog woodland mosaic in Co. Offaly. 

Raised bogs in Ireland, and other countries alike, have been drained and terribly over-exploited for fuel and horticultural products, particularly in the previous and current centuries. As a result, this extremely slow-forming habitat is now *much* rarer than what it once was, at least in an ecologically healthy state. 

Commercial mining of peat is coming to an end, but these precious spaces now face a new threat in the form of large-scale wind farms with accompanied draining and development. Of course we cannot continue to rely on fossil fuels, and renewable energy development is a must. But this needs to be approached with care, and turbines need to be placed in areas with the least impact to both humans and other creatures with which we share the planet. 

Some sites have undergone the first steps towards rehabilitation and rewetting - let's hope that this happens on a much needed larger scale across the country. We can't keep taking from nature - it will eventually break as is very much evident in Ireland. It's long since time stopped taking and gave back!

Bog Woodland at Dawn

Recorded shortly after a shower during the rainy season in the Atlantic Forest Reserve Mbaracayú, Paraguay. 

This dusk chorus climax is dominated by amphibians. After some initial research, the species heard are Leptodactylus elenae (or fuscus?), Leptodactylus mystacinus and a Dendrosophus (minutus or nanus). 

If anyone reading this can help to confirm or correct any of the ID, please get in touch. Thank you for listening!

Mbaracayú Dusk Climax

Yeruvás/Rufous-capped Motmots (Baryphthengus ruficapillus) calling and duetting at dawn.

Recorded in February 2024 in Mbaracayú Forest Reserve, Paraguay

Dawn Of The Motmots (excerpt)

Out of all digital recordings that I have made since 1991, this is the one I love the most. The bird is magic. 
Recorded with a Telinga stereo parabol and a Sony DAT TCD-D3 machine in June 1991. No filter.
You don´t need headphones for this track.

Whinchat

SEGEL for orchestra (2016-17)

sound | ecology | ornithology | herpetology 

here, you find a selection of recordings from my archive. if you want to use one of my recordings for your project, please get in touch.

thank you for listening!

peace!

Mbaracayú Dusk Climax

Hendrik Walcher

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